A World Book Night Convert
Having debated long and hard with my teenage sons about the merits of books vs film (guess which side they are on) I was compelled to get involved in World Book Night.
A million books to be given out nationwide on March 5, what fun! And it was. Thrilled to be selected to be a giver, I thought my arguments for choosing my book (chosen from a list of 25) must have been persuasive (libraries closing, teenagers plugged into ipods etc), or it might have been that nobody else wanted to give it out. Either way, I picked up my 48 copies of Fingersmith, by Sarah Waters (of Tipping The Velvet tv series fame) and proceeded to write a unique number in each which makes them forever trackable. Then as darkness fell, I lugged them (and a couple of helpers, willing or not) down to the station to accost unsuspecting strangers and ask them about their reading habits. I had a pre-conceived notion that people would think I was trying to scam them — oh me of little faith.
Apart from two people who politely declined to take the book, everybody was friendly and happy to take part. I even managed to persuade a group of teenage boys (ok, there were two girls with them) to take a book each and promise faithfully not to bin it as soon as I was out of sight.
Then to the pub — my good deed done for the year … and hopefully a book convert or two to boot.
Forgot to mention — got a storyof my adventure published in the local paper, the Surrey Mirror, as one of our recent Brighton Journalist Works graduates just landed a job as a reporter there — luckily she sent a photographer so the picture was good (not the one with this blog) — no disrespect helpers!
Louisa Hannah's Blog 