Monday night is the first ever World Book Night in the U.S. The celebration began a year ago in the UK to "spread a love of reading and books."
Literary-lovin' volunteers have committed to picking up (free!) books this weekend and distributing them by Monday to adult readers in need of inspiring stories, like at the Alpha House, a licensed maternity home for new mothers & pregnant women in crisis.
Locally the effort includes Inkwood Books' Carla Jimenez, who wrote in a recent email that she "was thrilled to be asked to serve on the committee selecting the titles," which includes some of my favorite novels ever:
The latter three sit on my own bookshelf but I have yet to make time for them. In the spirit of this wonderful celebration I'd be happy to pass them along.
I don't think there's a better gift in the world than a book.
Alizza Punzalan-Hall is co-chair of The Plight & Promise of Africa, an Eckerd College initiative that shines a local spotlight on the troubled continent that seems worlds away from us in the U.S. As part of the program, What is the What author Dave Eggers and Lost Boy Gabriel Bol Deng came to the campus last week to discuss Sudan and the good that has come out of, and recently returned to, the war-ravaged country.
It was exciting to see a huge crowd for this event (by no means Kenny Chesney huge, but at the very least Lyle Lovett large).
Alizza introduced author Dave Eggers with one of his own quotes:
“When you’re walking down the street holding a ladder, and someone needs a ladder, you hand over that ladder. It’s almost a relief to have a tool in hand, and meet someone who needs that very tool."
Eggers' book What is the What tells the story of Valentino Achak Deng, one of Sudan's Lost Boys. Deng was not in attendance due to a family emergency, and his friend Gabriel was kind enough to share his story.
Next week I'll have the story on WMNF. Stay tuned.
My life has become all about books since I started working at the library three months ago. I leave work after each shift with no less than three or four or more books - subjects I want to know about (the lives of Chinese factory workers), need to know about (health, digital video editing), and all those classics (Dave Eggers and Alan Watts) that I wished I had read as a dumb twentysomething.
I'm physically bringing my work home with me. It took just over a month to hit the 50 item check out limit. My dining room table is buried. It's as if I'm at the library even on my days off.
In the interest of having a clean house, however, I need to stop hoarding soon. But for now, I'll continue to alternate between my two checked out copies (print and audio) of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (book discussion at the end of the month) and then onto whatever next awaits me.
A brand new book I just finished (and returned) and highly recommend is Peter (son of Warren) Buffett's Life is What You Make It. Not only can you judge this book by its crisp little cover, but the title pretty much sums it up while the book itself gives you the common sense to actually follow through and make it happen. Whatever your particular "it" might be.
