ladysprite | How Have I Not Heard Of This Before?

So I'm having a lousy night - one of those nights where I hate myself and everyone else and I just can't shake my blue mood, in spite of the best efforts of my husband, wacky movies, and the rest of the world. And I'm just sitting here and moping and clicking around links on the internet in a lackluster, I-don't-really-care kind of way.

And I found a link to something called World Book Night.

And suddenly.... not such a lousy night anymore.

Seriously, how have I never heard of this before, and how is it that all of my friends are not all over this like the awesome thing it is?

Because this is a charity that gives out free books to light readers, reluctant readers, and people who don't have access to books for social or financial reasons. That's it. You apply to be a book-hander-outer, and pick one of their books, and if you're accepted, you get to spend a day giving out books to people, to help convince them that reading is awesome. Apparently at no cost to yourself - the authors waive their royalties and the publishers pay to have special World Book Night editions printed up.

This is kind of the coolest thing I've heard of in a long, long time.

I am absolutely applying to be volunteer book giver, and I would love it if other folks did too - either locally (let's team up!) or around the world (and then we can share awesome stories about cool people we meet and convince to read amazing books!).

Information on the charity itself, and how to either support it or take part in it, is here.

I am so glad to live in a world where this exists.....