"Congratulations!
We are delighted to inform you that your application to be one of the 20,000 givers on the first World Book Night has been successful."
This was part of an longer message that downloaded into my inbox as I checked my emails this morning. For those that don't know, or haven't heard of it,
World Book Night is an event on March 5th where selected participants from all over the country will all hand out a number of copies of a particular book - for free - in celebration of 'reading'. 20,000 volunteers from across the country will be selected, and each given a choice of a number of different book titles to choose their first and second favourites from. The event itself is aimed at encouraging more people to read, with the free books aimed particularly at those who perhaps wouldn't have access to reading as easily as others might. You can learn more about it
here.
I put my name down to sign up to take part a couple of months ago, and have been waiting to hear since then. In fact, I had an email a week or two ago saying that I was one of the first to sign up! There has been a long recruitment drive over the radio and television since the beginning of the year, and due to the huge number of people that have signed up, the group behind this project had to delay announcing those chosen because they had so many applications to get through! This email this morning though, confirmed that I have been selected as one of the 20,000 book distributors! On volunteering, I was asked to nominate a first and second choice of book title to distribute. My first choice, which I have been given to distribute, is Nothern Lights by Philip Pullman - the first book in the 'His Dark Materials' trilogy. I chose this book because it had such an impact on me when I first read it - and it has something inside for all ages. 'His Dark Materials' (and 'Nothern Lights' in particular) is definitely a book that everybody should read at least once in their life.
The books I am to distribute will shortly be sent to my local library for me to collect, and on March 5th I shall be handing them out!
