Would you like a free book?
This was my opening line tonight as I talked with a couple dozen people tonight for World Book Night. I stood outside the main entrance of my local mall, approaching total strangers as they left to go to their cars. Tonight I gave away 20 copies of The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (a totally awesome book btw!) A couple people actually declined receiving a free book. No doubt they thought I was giving away some religious publication. A couple people who did take a copy of the book thought for a moment I was giving them a King James Bible! No, I told them, this is a New York Times bestselling novel. One lady I talked to said her mom was actually doing the same thing tonight in Washington D.C. How awesome is that!
One thing that was interesting to see is most of the people who accepted the books were women. If I approached a family or a man & woman, it was the woman who stepped up to take the book. Maybe since I'm a woman, it was more socially comfortable for the men to step back and let the women talk with me. And since it is the mall, I naturally saw more women exiting the building than men, because who loves shopping more?
It took me just over ten minutes to give away 12 books at the mall. Wow! The rest of the 20 books I gave away earlier this evening at a Zumba class. Lots more women there too. I just put the books on the table, told everyone about World Book Night, and everyone flocked to the table.
I look forward to doing this again next year. I hope to find some other book givers in my area, because it would be more fun to give books away with friends.
I'm glad you got to be involved in this, and even more glad that you enjoyed it. I wanted to do it, but the timing wasn't good. I've never read The Poisonwood Bible, but of course it's one of those that's been on my "Check into this one" list for ages. :)
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