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Book Business

World Book Night 2013

Today is World Book Night. This is my second year of signing up for the event. Last year I gave away 25 copies of The Time Traveler’s Wife. This year I am giving away 20 copies of Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson, in which you can read my review here.

My review contains some minor spoiler but I have rated five stars on an emotional read of Jeanette Winterson’s life and for a year or so, I have wanted to share this book with everyone.

World Book Night 2013

I have sent half of the stack of the book to my colleague, Lauren, in the Housing Association I work for. Lauren works with underprivileged young people and help them get back to work. Lauren has 10 youth under her wings. I requested Lauren to give them each a copy of this book. I would have like to take a photo of the giveaway but due to confidentiality issue, I can’t.

Lauren is a committed Opportunity Plus Officer who cares about the young people that she works with and often Yammers (A corporate Facebooky type of social network we have at work) about the her good work in our company’s intranet. So I hope the young people find their life inspiration through this book.

World Book Night 2013 (1)

The other 10 copies I will be giving it away to my colleagues and people around my neighbourhood, which I think would not normally read. A good thing about giving the books to my colleagues is that every so often when I see them every few months, I will follow up and ask if they have read the book or not!😉

World Book Night 2013 (2)

So open to UK residents only, one copy is up for draw for my blog readers. If you want to win a copy please leave a comment in this blog post and tell me why you want to read this. I am sticking to the giver’s principle. As most of you who are readers of my blog are voracious readers, you will enter my draw on one condition: that is to pass it on to someone who do not normally read after you have finished reading it.

Deal? If so, you have till end of the month on the 30th of April to put your name in the hat!

See other titles in World Book Night 2013 UK and events around the UK.

“The more I read the more I fought against the assumption that literature is for the minority – of a particular education or class. Books were my birthright too.” Jeanette Winterson, Why be happy when you could be normal?

Why 23rd April?

April 23 is a symbolic date for world literature. It is both the birth and death day of Shakespeare, as well as the death day of Cervantes, the great Spanish novelist. It is in their honour that UNESCO appointed it the international day of the book and that we choose it to celebrate World Book Night. April 23rd also marks the city of Barcelona’s celebration of St George’s Day. St George is the patron saint of Catalonia as well as England and traditionally, to celebrate this day, Spanish gentlemen gave their ladies roses and the ladies returned the favour with a book. Considering the rich literary history of this day, it seemed more than fitting that April 23rd should be chosen as the day of celebrating reading and the giving of books!

About JoV

A bookaholic that went out of control.... I eat, sleep and breathe books. Well, lately I do other stuff.

Discussion

34 thoughts on “World Book Night 2013

  1. I love the idea of World Book Day. For us, it is tomorrow in the US. I am giving out 20 copies of Looking for Alaska by John Green and am really looking forward to it. I’ll post tomorrow

    Posted by Helen Murdoch | April 23, 2013, 12:33 am
  2. Too bad I’m not residing in the UK🙂

    Posted by Marvin | April 23, 2013, 1:08 am
  3. I’m giving away copies of Vanessa Diffenbaugh’s The Language of Flowers tomorrow night, which is World Book Night in the states. I’m giving them away at a nursing home facility for the elderly called Manor Care, and I hope it will bless the people who receive it. Isn’t this a marvelous event in which to be involved?

    Posted by Bellezza | April 23, 2013, 1:27 am
  4. I love that you gave away half of your stack to your colleague who has handed them out to vulnerable and under-privileged youth. I think that is a beautiful idea. I aim to bring drama to the same group with the charity theatre group I work for.

    I haven’t read Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal but I would like too because I have only heard and read great things about it.

    Posted by jessicabookworm | April 23, 2013, 6:40 am
  5. I’ll also be giving away Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? Hope you enjoying giving this wonderful book away!

    Posted by Jennifer Wallace | April 23, 2013, 7:37 am
  6. This is a wonderful thing you are doing, Jo! So proud of you and admire you so much! It is wonderful to spread the joy of reading around, especially to young people who can’t get the books themselves. It is wonderful what your colleague Lauren is doing – she is such an inspiration.

    Posted by Vishy | April 23, 2013, 11:12 am
    • Vishy,
      Yes she is. I told her she can earn a lot by being a recruitment consultant. She said she doesn’t want to work for the recruitment firms, what she does is more rewarding. I do agree with her!

      Posted by JoV | April 23, 2013, 1:13 pm
  7. This seems like it would be so fun! (I am too shy to do such a thing myself!) I hope you have fun and let us know how it went!

    Posted by rhapsodyinbooks | April 23, 2013, 12:05 pm
  8. This is an excellent choice for Wolrd Book Night. I’ve started it three times and put it aside every time because I like it so much and want to savour it. A bit silly but I do that sometimes.

    Posted by Caroline | April 23, 2013, 12:09 pm
  9. You thought well about distributing the books – sounds like they are all ending up with deserving people. I should read the book sometime – but since I’m not in the UK, i won’t enter this giveaway. Happpy Book Night!

    Posted by Leeswammes | April 23, 2013, 2:24 pm
  10. Have fun passing out the loot!

    Posted by Ti | April 23, 2013, 4:56 pm
  11. Sounds like your books are going out to some excellent and well deserving places and people. I haven’t read this one but have heard many good things about it. I am giving The Reader by Bernhard Schlink. Enjoy your WBN.

    Posted by Lindsay @ The Little Reader Library | April 23, 2013, 6:08 pm
  12. Very inspiring. Sometimes when I am through with a book rather than just have it gather dust I leave it in a food court in a Manila mall with a note saying free book.

    Posted by Mel u | April 24, 2013, 9:06 am
  13. What a great book to celebrate our differences. Congrats on being a WBN host.

    Posted by Diane@BibliophilebytheSea | April 25, 2013, 12:41 am
  14. I gave away the reader ,all bar two at work ,all the best stu

    Posted by winstonsdad | April 25, 2013, 4:59 pm

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Ratings Defined

0 = Abandon the book after first chapter

1 = Waste of paper, we will see what the environmentalist say about this!

2 = Skip it, read the book if you have got nothing better to do

2.5 = An average book, easily forgettable.

3 = A good read.

3.5 = A good entertaining read, a page-turner

4 = So glad that I read the book, a book with substance and invaluable for future reference

4.5 = So glad that I read the book, would pester everyone to read it, invaluable, I would want to own it and wouldn't mind a second read (something that I seldom do)

5 = The book is so good that I feel like I am on scale 4 and 4.5, and more, it blew me away and lingers on my head for weeks!

Books Read

JoV's bookshelf: read
Hold Tight
The Fault in Our Stars
The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon
The Thief
Mockingjay
Catching Fire
A Tale for the Time Being
Into the Darkest Corner
The Liars' Gospel
Goat Mountain
Strange Weather In Tokyo
Strange Shores
And the Mountains Echoed
Ten White Geese
One Step Too Far
The Innocents
The General: The ordinary man who became one of the bravest prisoners in Guantanamo
White Dog Fell from the Sky
A Virtual Love
The Fall of the Stone City


JoV's favorite books »
Share book reviews and ratings with JoV, and even join a book club on Goodreads.
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Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking. - Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)

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