World Book Night 2014

Yesterday was World Book Night, a celebration of connecting people with books.  All across the world, Book Givers went out in public to someplace "non-bookish" and gave away books for free.  I mean, how cool is that?

I first heard about World Book Night through Twitter.  Some of my colleagues were Givers last year so I heard all the buzz about how to be a Giver and participate.  You have to apply pretty early to be a Giver--I believe the deadline is in the Fall for the following Spring date (which is a good reason to follow World Book Night on Twitter so you don't forget!).  The application is quick and easy and I was accepted right away to be a Giver!

When you apply to be a Giver, you get a list of books; from that list, you choose your favorites that you would like to give away.  I think I listed three favorites and was given around 30 copies of this book (I didn't count):

 

Even though I normally read YA fiction, I'm glad that I was assigned adult nonfiction due to the audience I had for my giveaway.

So where did I go?  I chose my high school's baseball game that night.  It was a perfect choice--there was a large crowd and the weather was beautiful!

These were my passing-out-book buddies:

I mean, who could resist taking a book from those cute faces?  Ransom, who's 2 1/2, practiced saying "Would you like a free book?" with me--adorable!

I set up my table next to the ticket booth since I knew I'd be visible there, and sure enough, we gave away all of the books in less than an hour!

And now I have the privilege of calling myself a Book Giver!

My favorite parts of the night were people just absolutely shocked that I wouldn't ask for a donation...they were genuinely excited to get a free book!

Want to be a Book Giver?  Just follow World Book Night on Twitter and keep your eyes peeled this Fall for the application deadline!