World Book Night

Sometimes when things sound too good to be true, they actually are true.

Late last year we were asked to work with an organization that was planning on giving away lots and lots of free books.  We were, to put it mildly, skeptical.  Today we have, to put it mildly, glad hearts.

World Book Night was celebrated Monday for the first time in the United States.  Begun only last year in the United Kingdom, this organization is responsible for distributing 2,500,000 free books this week.

Not just any books, mind you.  World Book Night selected 30 superb titles by writers such as Sherman Alexie, Junot Díaz, Dave Eggers, John Irving, Barbara Kingsolver, Ann Patchett, and Patti Smith.  Each of these authors agreed to forgo royalties.  The organization then got their publishers to print special editions of each book.  (For the UK and Ireland, an equally excellent, almost completely different list was used.)

Next, World Book Night asked people to sign up to be givers and to distribute a box of twenty books in their communities.  Bookstores (including Little Shop of Stories) and libraries volunteered to be points of distribution.

Givers who attended a reception and picked up their books at Little Shop were passing out their copies to students at local schools, the elderly in nursing homes, MARTA commuters, and prisoners.

Things did not run perfectly.  Some people who requested to be givers were never contacted.  Some boxes never got shipped.  But overall, this has been amazingly successful initial year.

Now that we know what to expect (and what to be true), we’re already starting to get excited about next year.

This Week

Sean Connolly, author of The Book of Potentially Catastrophic Science and The Book of Perfectly Perilous Math, Wednesday, April 25th at 7pm, Little Shop of Stories, free.

Delia Ephron, author of The Lion is In, Wednesday, April 25th at 8pm, Atlanta History Center, free.

Robert Craig, author of The Architecture of Francis Palmer Smith, Atlanta’s Scholar-Architect, Thursday, April 26th at 6:30pm, Cathedral of St. Philip, Atlanta.

Poetry Slam, Thursday, April 26th at 7pm, Little Shop of Stories, free.

Dr. Paula Bloom, co-author of Why Does He Do That? Why Does She Do That?: Two Relationship Experts Reveal the Naked Truth About Dating in the 21st Century, Saturday, April 28th at 7pm, Little Shop of Stories, free.

Donnie Winokur, author of Nuzzle: Love Between a Boy and His Service Dog, and Chancer, service dog (both of whom were profiled in a New York Times Magazine article earlier this year), Sunday, April 29th at 3pm, Little Shop of Stories, free.

Rheta Grimsley Johnson, author of Hank Hung the Moon…and Warmed Our Cold, Cold Hearts, Monday, April 30th at 7pm, Jimmy Carter Library, sponsored by Georgia Center for the Book, free.

Imran Ahmad, author of The Perfect Gentleman: A Muslim Boy Meets the West, Wednesday, May 2nd at 7pm, Jimmy Carter Library, sponsored by Georgia Center for the Book, free.