World Book Night 2013: The full report.

I was so thrilled to be a World Book Night giver this year!
World Book Night is, in their words:

“World Book Night is an annual celebration dedicated to spreading the love of reading, person to person.  Each year on April 23, tens of thousands of people go out into their communities and give half a million free World Book Night paperbacks to light and non-readers.  In 2012, World Book Night was celebrated in the U.S., the UK, Ireland, and Germany.

World Book Night is about giving books and encouraging reading in those who don’t regularly do so. But it is also about more than that: It’s about people, communities and connections, about reaching out to others and touching lives in the simplest of ways—through the sharing of stories.”

So I was one of those GIVERS!

My book?
The Phantom Tollbooth.
I felt like I was highly qualified to give this book out,
since I’ve MET Norton Juster 🙂

Even though it was a while ago,
I wrote down extensive notes when I got home
(maybe anticipating that it would take me a while to get to writing this!)

So, World Book Night!
The full report!

First, all the preparation!

 

 

 

 

 

And then I was off!

I headed downtown around 6ish.
The spot that I picked was the bus station.

When I got there, immediately ran into someone giving out Tina Fey’s “BossyPants…” which I kind of wanted to read.

“This is my spot.” she said, kind of aggressively. “For three years.”
“Oh,” I said. “Well, we have different books.”
She took a look at mine.
“Oh, a kid’s book. Well, I guess we can all pass out books.”

I asked her how long she had been out.
“About 15 minutes,” she said.
“Wow,” I said, “Good job!”

At this point she decided to warm up to me and gave me a hint.
“Go on a bus or hit people waiting,” she said.

I thanked her and started circling the station.
It’s weird how I felt nervous to give people something FOR FREE!

Suddenly, I was giving out my first book.
“It’s World Book Night!” I said, all cheery.
“Do you like books?”
The man nodded and I handed him one.
I really wanted to get a picture of me handing over the book to all the people who got one,
but that made this guy nervous.

“No matter,” I said.
“You can still have it!”

With one book given out,
I was starting to feel a little more confident.

I glance down the way and see a cute guy
and what appears to be his mom,
sitting on a bench.

“Hey how do you feel about free books?” I asked.
“Um, English?” he asked, in an accent that I KNEW to be French.
“Um, yeah.” I said.
He pointed back and forth between his mom and himself and said, “Nous parlons francais,” (We speak French)

At which point I clapped my hands and said,
“JE PARLE FRANCAIS!”

They were shocked.
The guy said, “Vraiment?” (really?)
And I vraiment’d him back.

I really do speak French (about 60 percent fluent if you don’t get too particular with the verb tenses!)
and I ended up having a 40 minute conversation with Geoffrey and his Mom.
Turns out they were here to visit Geoffrey’s twin, who goes to school at UCSC (University of California, Santa Cruz)

They couldn’t believe I could speak French.
It was really fun.
Turns out Geoffrey is a boxer,
and I remembered the word for scar! (cigatrice!)
I also recited some poetry in French.

They thought I was really good at French,
and were kind of angry when Nicolai (twin) arrived,
because I started to speak English.

I switched back to French and we said our goodbyes.
“You are cute…we’re so glad we met you,” said the French speaking brother.
The other brother rolled his eyes and smiled, and they left.

Speaking French to real life French people gave me even more confidence!
I ran into someone from capoeira and didn’t have to convince him too much to take a book.

A guy named John was waiting for a ride
(and also cute)
and said he had heard of the Phantom Tollbooth,
but he’d never read it.
I handed him a copy and then his ride pulled up.

A girl a few feet down from him looked interested,
so I sent her off with one too.

Next I tried the “on the bus” technique.
I first asked the bus driver,
who, frankly, looked a little young to be a bus driver,
but he said he had no where to put the book.
I thought that was a lame excuse,
and started waving the book around inside the bus.

I showed my sign for good measure,
And 6 people took the book!

Someone already had a copy of BossyPants,
so I told him he couldn’t double dip.
Then do you know what happened?
They all clapped for me!
and said, “Thank you for spreading your love of reading.”

It was like being in a movie.

I looked across the way after the bus pulled out
and saw a boy pacing.
So I went over and talked to him.

“A kids book, huh?”
“Well, it’s really for all ages. If you like humor and wordplay, you’re gonna love it!”
Then he started talking about his own writing.
Turns out he was 15 and a writer of sci fi and murder mystery.
“I’m really into reading but don’t normally read kids books, but I’ll give it a shot!”
So that was fun.

The girl next to him was drawing in a notebook.
I asked her if she wanted a book and she perked right up.
I also asked her what some of her favorite authors were,
which led us to a great conversation about John Green,
which we kept up until her bus arrived.

I headed over to another bench and asked a guy if he wanted a book,
and he said, “I can’t read.”
But then added, “It’s my eyes.”

I smiled and thanked him anyway.
Someone on the bench further down smiled at me,
which meant he wanted a book (clearly!)
and he started reading it right away!

Which led to the most epic photo of the night:

Me taking this shot from far away and zooming in!
I didn’t want to freak him out but I really wanted a picture of someone reading the book!

I headed over to the other side
(the station is shaped like a pair of parenthesis… ( ) sides right across from each other but open at both ends!)
and gave one to a guy named Jesse.
“I LOVE THIS BOOK!” he said.
“Can you pass it on to someone?” I asked.
“I know just the person,” he said.

At this point I was getting a little tired,
you know, from all the epic-ness.

I walked over to a group of people who were waiting and asked:
“Hey you guys want to talk about books?”
“This is a really cool one. And it’s free!”
I told them more about World Book Night.

“Anyone want one?”

“Sure.”
“I’ll take one.”
“Yes, please.”

And just like that
I had handed out all of my books.

I ended at 7:10.
Which was pretty good considering I had that 40 minute French conversation!
and headed to capoeira.

I was just in time for the roda (pronounced hoda)
And helped everyone sing.

The end.

WHEW!
That sure was the full report.
Were any of you guys involved in Book night?
If not, be sure to check it out for next year!

Until next time,

KE and SS