World Book Night 2012

Just a reminder to all literary lovers that next World Book Night is due to be held on April 23rd, 2012. Now, as I am sure most will already know, 2012 is an Olympic year, and the games are being held in London. But, who cares? The organisation of the event, particularly in the allocation of tickets, is so disorganised it has become a joke. In fact The Olympiad is becoming a bigger turn-off the nearer it gets, and being closely involved with it, i.e. living in the London area, is, for many, leading to increased apathy on a grand scale. I don’t imagine that there will be a dearth of spectators, but I wonder how many of them will be Londoners.

Now, World Book Night does not suffer from any disorganisation or apathy whatsoever. Last year’s event was the first, and was a major success. I participated, and chose as my book One Day by David Nichols. I distributed my forty-nine copies in the Harlequin Centre in Watford. The Harlequin management could not have been more accommodating, and even allowed me free parking. As it turned out though, I could have parked on double yellow lines without risk, as it took just minutes for the books to be snapped up. Watford is not renowned as a literary town on par with Hay-on-Wye, but I bet my forty-nine books were snaffled in Watford equally as fast as they would have been over in Herefordshire.

Now that I am a full-time student, I intend to distribute my next batch on the university campus. However, I suspect that there might be competition. I therefore need to choose my book wisely. I don’t want to be left holding unwanted stock, even if it is free!

Enrolment for World Book Night is still open, click Here to register.

IR 2011