World Book Night 2012 – what did you give?

April 23rd is no longer just St George’s Day or the anniversary of the birth and death of Shakespeare; for the last two years, it’s also been World Book Night, where a million books of all genres have been given away free to members of the public around the UK, and elsewhere.

This year, the shortlist was a little longer than in 2011, with twenty-five titles for givers and receivers to choose from. I was lucky enough to have a box full of The Player of Games by Iain M Banks to distribute, AWW originator Rob gave Misery by Stephen King, and on a very rainy evening, we took our novels to The Big BookBang at Slack Space, a not-for-profit arts space in Colchester.  We had the privilege of advocating and reading passages from our books, along with eight or nine other givers.  This was interspersed with an introduction to Book Crossing, plus local poets Fred Slattern and Mark Brayley, some stand-up comedy and even a local author.

Rob was first up to introduce his book. I was the last to advocate their book in person.  The event was really well attended, with over a hundred people braving the dreadful weather to leave with a couple of lovely new free books, as well as some pre-loved copies from the Book Crossing tables at the back of the hall.

The full list of books runs like this:

• Pride & Prejudice Jane Austen
• The Player of Games Iain M Banks
• Sleepyhead Mark Billingham
• Notes from a Small Island  Bill Bryson
• The Alchemist Paulo Coelho
• The Take Martina Cole
• Harlequin Bernard Cornwell
• Someone Like You Roald Dahl
• A Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens
• Room Emma Donoghue
• Rebecca Daphne Du Maurier
• The Remains of the Day Kazuo Ishiguro
• Misery Stephen King
• The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic Sophie Kinsella
• Small Island  Andrea Levy
• Let the Right One In John Ajvide Lindqvist
• The Road Cormac McCarthy
• The Time Traveler’s Wife Audrey Niffenegger
• The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox Maggie O’Farrell
• The Damned Utd David Peace
• Good Omens Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman
• How I Live Now Meg Rosoff
• Touching the Void Joe Simpson
• I Capture the Castle Dodie Smith
• The Book Thief Markus Zusak

Kate Neilan @magic_kitten