World Book Night 2015

Happy Friday, readers! I apologise but for the rest of this week and most of next week I will be overwhelming you with posts... All very exciting, however! This year, I am fortunate enough to be involved with World Book Night 2015 (with The Reading Agency), a great project aiming to get the whole nation reading and loving what they read. It involves 20,000 volunteers from all over the UK handing out 400,000 free books they love to the public, and hopefully encouraging them to continue reading for pleasure. In conjunction with FmCM Associates, I will be writing some features all about World Book Night this year, including book reviews, author Q+As and even my own 'reading journey'...

The lovely Sanne from BooksandQuills has made a video about her involvement with World Book Night, and the book she has chosen to give away is Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier. She has packaged them up into gorgeous little presents and has given them away, and left them in places where people will find them and pick them up.

Thousands of volunteers are doing the same thing all over country, and I am determined to do my bit to support this fantastic project! In my next few blog posts I will be spreading the world of World Book Night, sharing my favourites, and commenting on my own 'reading journey'. This year sees a sensational and diverse line up designed to bring reading and books into people’s lives. The list (featured below) covers a range of genres including crime, poetry, non-fiction, Quick Reads, fantasy and sci-fi, historical and contemporary fiction, and fiction in translation.

Appearing on the list are bestselling favourites, including Lynda La Plante’s Prime Suspect, David Almond’s Skellig, and Rachel Joyce’s The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. The incredible Roddy Doyle is also featured with his first Quick Read title, the spooky comedy Dead Man Talking. Also on the list this year is TV and radio personality Karl Pilkington’s hilarious comedy, The Moaning of Life – a book which is sure to appeal to his fans and to tempt those who are not yet regular readers to try a book on World Book Night. As well as these amazing books, World Book Night is able to include a wonderful anthology of poetry on the list for the first time, Essential Poems from the Staying Alive Trilogy edited by Neil Astley.

World Book Night 2015 is focusing on reaching out to as many readers as possible from all parts of the country and many public participation events through partnerships with libraries, bookshops, communities and charities, will be taking place in venues and open public spaces in celebration.

Interested? Here are the 20 titles especially selected for 2015:

1. After the Fall by Charity Norman (Allen and Unwin)

2. Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death by M. C. Beaton (Constable, Little, Brown) 

3. Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb (HarperCollins)

4. Chickenfeed by Minette Walters (Quick Read) (Pan Macmillan) 

5. Custard Tarts and Broken Hearts by Mary Gibson (Head of Zeus)

6. Dead Man Talking by Roddy Doyle (Quick Read) (Vintage, Penguin Random House)

7. Escape from Camp 14 by Blaine Harden (Pan Macmillan)

8. Essential Poems from the Staying Alive Trilogy, Neil Astley (ed.) (Bloodaxe)

9. Honour by Elif Shafak (Penguin General, Penguin Random House)

10. My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece by Annabel Pitcher (Orion / Hachette Children’s) 

11. Prime Suspect by Lynda La Plante (Simon & Schuster)

12. Queen’s Gambit by Elizabeth Fremantle (Michael Joseph, Penguin Random House)

13. Skellig by David Almond (Hachette Children’s)

14. Spring Tide by Cilla and Rolf Börjlind (Hesperus)

15. Street Cat Bob by James Bowen (Quick Read) (Hodder)

16. The Martian by Andy Weir (Ebury, Penguin Random House) 

17. The Moaning of Life by Karl Pilkington (Canongate)

18. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce (Transworld, Penguin Random House)

19. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (Two Roads, John Murray)


20. When God Was A Rabbit by Sarah Winman (Headline)

There will be lots of posts coming up in the next few days all about World Book Night- I can't wait to share them with you!

Until next time :)