World Book Night 2014

World Book Night 2014 falls on 23rd April. So everyone had best look out for some free books being offered out. This year a friend and I got together, and managed to bully our wonderful boss, Mark, into letting us have a whole trolly load of promotional books that were still kicking about the stock room. We spent a very happy hour handing these books out to bemused shoppers on Fareham High Street. It amazed us how many people viewed us with such total suspicion, if someone offers you a free book just take it people!! what was more worrying was the number of people who seemed to be so proud that they never read anything. This is not something to be proud of people of Fareham. Being someone who never picks up a book is shameful. I don't care what it is from the greatest high intellect of world classics to the crowd pleasing vanilla smut of modern erotic fiction and everything in between, there are books out there for everyone; and everyone should be making use of them. It doesn't matter what you choose, but please just pick up a book and open up your mind to the amazing places that exist between the pages.

Next year's book choices manage to have something to please everyone really, it's a shame that givers aren't able to take a selection of the books instead of just one title. But let's not worry about that too much. There is such joy in sharing a book that you love, especially if you can spread the joy of books about a bit at the same time. The selection has a few good solid classics alongside a couple of teen choices and even a nice selection of titles from the 'quick reads' range. I would happily have applied for a fair few of these books, but had to settle for just the three possible choices, so now the wait is just on to see which one I actually get allocated. I can't wait.

The choices offered this year are
Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne
After the Funeral by Agatha Christie
A Collection of Short Stories by Roald Dahl
Getting Rid of Matthew by Jane Fallon
Theodore Boone by John Grisham
The Humans by Matt Haig
Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin
Geezer Girls by Dreda Say Mitchell
The Recruit by Robert Muchamore
Whatever it Tales by Adele Parks
Black Hills by Nora Roberts
The Boy With the Topknot by Sathnam Sanghera
Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith
59 Seconds by Richard Wiseman
Four Warned by Jeffrey Archer
Hello Mum by Bernadine Evaristo
The Perfect Murder by Peter James
Today Everything Changes by Andy McNab
and Confession of a GP by Dr. Benjamin Daniels

I think they are still taking applications for givers for a little while yet so if you are interested get moving. :)