World Book Night - What's it all about?

World Book Night is set to be the biggest book giveaway in the world, and is taking place in the UK on 5th March 2011. Twenty Five books have been selected, chosen by a panel of experts to be as wide ranging as possible. 40,000 copies of each book will be given away on World Book Night, that's a total of 1 million books in one day (or within a few days of that one day at any rate). Most of the books will be given away by 20,000 givers, who will each give away 48 copies of their chosen book. The remainder will be given away by World Book Night centrally to hard to get into places such as prisons and hospitals.

Every copy of each book will have a unique code written inside it. The idea is that recipients of each book will log on to the World Book Night website and register their copy. The giver will then be able to track who has read their book. When the recipient has finished with it, they should pass it on to someone else who can then read it, log it online and pass it on. This concept is based on the Bookcrossing website, and indeed it is Bookcrossing which is powering the book logging system used by World Book Night.

The books are:

'A Fine Balance' by Rohinton Mistry
'A Life Like Other People's' by Alan Bennett
Agent Zigzag' by Ben MacIntyre
'All Quiet on the Western Front' by Erich Maria Remarque
'Beloved' by Toni Morrison
'Case Histories' by Kate Atkinson
'Cloud Atlas' by David Mitchell
'Dissolution' by C J Sansom
'Fingersmith' by Sarah Waters
'Half of a Yellow Sun' by Chimamanda NGozi Adichee
'Killing Floor' by Lee Child
'Life of Pi' by Yann Martel
'Love in the Time of Cholera' by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
'New Selected Poems' by Seamus Heaney
'The Blind Assassin' by Margaret Atwood
'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime' by Mark Haddon
'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie' by Muriel Spark
'The Reluctant Fundamentalist' by Mohsin Hamed
'The Spy Who Came in From the Cold' by John Le Carre
'The World's Wife' by Carol Ann Duffy
'Toast' by Nigel Slater

I applied to give away books on World Book Night, and I was one of the lucky ones to be chosen. The book I'm giving away is 'Killing Floor' by Lee Child. It is Lee Child's first novel, a thriller set in America and featuring the hero Jack Reacher, an ex army major in the military police. It is a great thriller, a real page turner with such a wonderful well rounded character in Reacher that you can't fail to like.

I chose the Lee Child book because he's one of my favourite authors, I've been to a couple of his book signings/talks, and despite now living in New York he used to live in Kirkby Lonsdale, a small village only a few miles from where I live and one we visit regularly. In fact, I believe he wrote this book while living there after being made redundant!

So what happens next? Well tomorrow I have to go to my local Waterstones bookstore to pick up the box of 48 books which should have been delivered there for me. I will then have to write the World Book Night tracking code in each book, and then start giving them away on Saturday. I don't know if I will manage to give them all away on Saturday, but I will try and give away as many as I can. 

There is a flagship event happening on Saturday night (5th March 2011) in Trafalgar Square in London where lots of books will be given away. There are also lots of events happening up and down the country, hosted by World Book Night Givers. Go to the World Book Night events page to search for an event.

I thought rather than just a static article describing World Book Night, I decided to turn this hub into a mini blog which I will update throughout the next few days with my progress. So if you are reading this around the weekend of 5th March, bookmark this hub and check back throughout the weekend to find out how I get on! I'm not doing any one event, but will try and give out my books in various ways. Watch this space!

Update 05 March, 10am. I picked up all my books, two large boxes from Waterstones, they were heavy! Spent an hour last night writing the ID numbers in all of the books (this is so people can register the books they receive on the World Book Night website, and they can be tracked from person to person). Am now about to go give some out in my home city of Lancaster. Not sure where exactly yet, but will probably start at the train station - people always have time to read on trains. More later.

Update 07 March - I managed to give out about 30 books on 5 March. The train station was the best, I gave away about 8 books in the space of 15 minutes. People were sat waiting for a train with nothing to do, so it was easy to approach them and they were generally very receptive, only one couple said they didn't read and so weren't interested. One lady was particularly interested and I talked to her for several minutes about why I'd chosen Killing Floor by Lee Child, and telling her about a local connection (Lee Child wrote the book, his first, while living nearby). Later I met family for lunch in a pub, and gave a few books out there,  my 14 year old nephew got involved too, and gave out a couple of books.

Next stop Lancaster University on my way home, surprisingly poor take up, only gave away 2 books, and that was while walking back to the car disappointed. In Lancaster City Centre was a bit of a mixed bag, many people were dubious, one person asked if it was a religious book (like, no, not at all!). I gave one to a man sat on a bench in town, turns out he knew about World Book Night as he worked at Waterstones (Britain's main chain of bookstores). There was a lady at the other end of the bench, she took one too, and both started reading straight away!

I chatted for a few minutes to the ladies in a sandwich shop, just as they were clearing up at the end of their day. They were quite interested and two of them took a copy.

I've since given some away to friends too, several took a couple each to give away at their work. My wife took several in to her work today and passed on them all, plus two extra she hadn't taken with her. Just about 5 copies left now which I will take to my work and shouldn't have any trouble giving out.

The next stage is to see if anyone registers their books and where they end up. I'm not optimistic that many will, as you have to register an account at World Book Night website before registering a book, which many people won't be bothered to do. It should really let you register a book directly from the front page without signing up. Will have to wait and see what happens though.