The season: How do you give away books?
I love my readers; I steal some of my best ideas from them. The erudite Elisabeth has reminded me of a discussion some time back about the charms of passing books on to others once one has read them. So here's what I'll do:Be one of the first five Detectives Beyond Borders readers to take a book you've read and send it to someone else, and I'll send you a book. Be honest, now; I'll have to take your word for it. The only condition is that you can't wipe toast crumbs from your face and pass the book to a spouse or child over the breakfast table. The book has to go to someone outside your household, whether across town, across country, or across the world.
I'll start the ball rolling by sending copies of Sandra Ruttan's two most recent books, Lullaby for the Nameless and The Frailty of Flesh, one to ccqdesigns and one to that old tooth-puller, Uriah Robinson, for their answers to the question I posed last week in Chasing the three-headed protagonist.
Write to me at detectivesbeyondborders (at) earthlink (dot) net with instructions on where to send the books.
© Peter Rozovsky 2009
Labels: miscellaneous
posted by Peter Rozovsky at 12:02 AM
14 Comments:
Thanks Peter, very kind! You must still have my address?
You're welcome. Yes, I do have your address. I'll send the book on its way over the next few days. Today, I'll visit my dentist.
Well shit -- all my giveaways have already been done.
Jeff VanderMeer's publicist, Matt Staggs, put out a request for dark crime fiction not to long ago on Twitter. I retweeted the request and gathered some responses for him. I found that I had an extra copy of Saturday's Child by Ray Banks so I sent it over to him. I also hooked him up with an extra copy of Slammer by the tartan ninja himself, Mr. Allan Guthrie.
And you'll recall that I gave Jeff a copy of Hard Man
I'll have to consult with the Detectives Beylond Borders legal department to find out of this giveaway offer is retroactive.
I am well aware of your your household's generosity in the matter of books. The tartan ninja himself offered me a copy of a book that I had already received from you.
Oh, yeah: Merry Christmas.
Swapping books is a great thing to do. My watering hole here in Minneapolis is the Black Forest Inn. We have a loosely organized book club sorta. We have "members" who most of us have never met but their books turn up to be shared.
Simply put your initials inside the front cover so you don't take the same one twice. Over the years I have read several hundred books from this group. Many that I would have never picked out myself.
After a book has made the rounds it either disappears or when enough accumulate somebody take them to one of the local hospitals.
I introduced myself to the pleasure of book swapping when I was given a novel in Northern Ireland, enjoyed it, and sent it on to a friend in Australia. I don't know where the book is now.
I am at the closest thing I have to a watering hole as I write this. Perhaps I'll suggest a book swap, though I'm not sure how much reading the customers do, at least the slavering heathens who show up after hours.
In the meantime, your participation in your swap entitles you to a book under the rules and regulations of this post. Send along a postal address with an indication of the type of book you might like, and I'll try to match your request as closely as possible.
My variation on the "book swap" and the book give-away is my end of semester ritual (just completed) during which I give books to students in my classes; publishers provide plenty of review copies and exam copies, and there is no better disposition for those books than to send them on to the students (some of whom might actually read and cherish what they plunder from my many, many leftovers). My local library is also included among my quarterly bequests.
I introduced a theme, and the comments are variations. I like that, and I'll be interested to learn what additional ways readers have of passing on their books for further reading.
Don't forget the wonderful BookCrossing: http://www.bookcrossing.com/ This is a particularly good way to share books by local authors with people travelling around the world. It's always a pleasure to read glowing comments about a book that you enjoyed from someone who may never have encountered it any other way.
I had heard the BookCrossing name without knowing what the site does. That's a wonderful idea, and I shall look into it further. Thanks.
Well, too late to be one of the first five, but today I passed three books to a friend.
They were Goethe's Faust (Ger/Ita) Keller's Der Grüne Heinrich (Ger/Ita) and Rowling's Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Eng).
My friend wants to learn German, his English is shaky, and he's a great fan of Harry Potter.
V-word:inkling
as in, I have an inkling he won't make quick progress with his German studies...
The joy of giving knows no season. I can send you a book.
Inkling certainly gets past the group stage in the v-word competition.
Danke!
You still have my address?
Bitte! I think I still have it, but I don't know where. Why don't you send it again? Thanks.
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