By Erin Mitchell
A million books. 50,000 people. What could possibly go wrong?
Truthfully, I can think of a bunch of things. I won’t be too surprised to be accosted by ignoramuses on April 23 for having the audacity of give people books. Because, you know, when people read, they think. Which is dangerous.
But I digress.
This week I learned that I will be a giver on World Book Night. I applied a good while ago, and every time I thought about it, I felt like I was 7 years old again, waiting to be picked for a kickball team, and knowing that I’d be the last one standing…unpicked. Oh, the life of a book nerd. Thankfully, I got the fantastic news this week that I was picked. So imminent mid-life crisis averted. Week after next I’ll learn which book I get to give out. I’m hoping for Michael Connelly’s BLOOD WORK for a couple of reasons:
First, Mr. Connelly lives locally, so I can tell reluctant or infrequent readers there’s a local tie. I have this pipe dream that he might even make a guest appearance on my odyssey of book foisting.
Also, BLOOD WORK was a movie. Ok, it was a crap movie, but still. I figure people might have heard of it, and therefore be more likely to read it. Of course, this might work against me if someone saw the movie and therefore feels s/he doesn’t need to read the book. We’ll see.
Oh, and it’s a helluva book.
When World Book Night happened in the UK and Ireland last year, I watched from afar hoping against hope that we’d do the same in America. Because I love the idea of thousands of people making a concerted effort to encourage reading. It means there are at least 50,000 people in the country who care enough to participate. And if even a tiny percentage of those who get one of the million books distributed reads it and learns or remembers that reading is actually fun (not boring or pretentious or any of that other crap some people think reading is), then it’s effort well spent.
This is an enormous effort involving booksellers, publishers, authors, librarians, and, of course, readers. There are few things more powerful than putting a book into someone’s hands, and there’s still time to sign up to be a giver. I hope you’ll consider joining in!
