World Book Night was a great success... at least in my village. Most people were extremely grateful to get Seamus Heaney and I had a lot of delightful conversations, the highlight being the very last book given away to an old Borders farmer out tending to his horse. He told me he loved Keats and didn't like Byron, and there was I thinking he would think I was mad trying to give him a poetry book... how wrong can I be!
There were a few people who were a bit nonplussed with the whole thing, but accepted a book anyway, and then there were a few others who said an outright 'no' saying they never read books. I did have particular success with three young teenagers who I stopped in the street and they immediately accepted books and seemed happy to do so.
Just one problem that I can see, and that is each book had, as said in a previous post, its own unique number and people are supposed to go to a website and record that number so that the organisers can track each book. Good idea I thought. Until I realised that at least 20% of people I gave books to don't have a computer. I'll be interested to see what the organisers will say about that one, and it certainly made me realise how many assumptions we, as a society, make. Interestingly, a lot of those people were the ones who were the most enthusiastic to receive. Maybe this says something?
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