... and there's still time to register as a book-giver.
A collection of publishers' associations plan on giving away a million books throughout the UK and Ireland on the night of the 5th of March (which, in an obtuse move on behalf of the organisers, is two days after World Book Day - go figure). As a book giver, you will give away forty-eight copies of whichever book you decide is the best from the twenty-five titles available. The deadline for applications is the 24th of January, and full details are available on the World Book Night website.
El T's choice from the chosen titles? Alan Bennett's A Life Like Other People's, by a long chalk. Taken from the collection Untold Stories (which is possibly the best book that El T has ever read - seriously), A Life Like Other People's is Bennett's moving and humorous portrait of his parents.
Two extracts, for your reading pleasure:
Bennett's unsentimental and unexpectedly funny account of his mother's decline into dementia, and an account of his parents' crippling shyness, with some interesting thoughts on what constitutes bad taste.
So, World Book Night: a laudable attempt from book publishers to encourage reading, or the desperate scramble of an industry facing imminent destruction from the rise of e-books? Depends on your level of cynicism, we suppose. Either way, free books.
No comments:
Post a Comment