World Book Night: The End

Finally, I'm ending on my final read of the inaugural thirty picks, The Stand by Stephen King. World Book Night has come and gone and this book took me over a month to read, but I soldiered through. The Stand is truly epic in both size (1400+ pages) and scope (it is about the death and resurrection of society). This one was a grand undertaking and I'd love to hear from some people who pitched it to non-readers. I had trouble with the size of the much more manageable 600+ page Irving book that I handed out, A Prayer for Owen Meany.

May I pause now to discuss that night for a bit? First of all, it was a lot of fun. You should follow the development here so that you will be ready to participate next year. I passed out all of my copies within two hours. Plus, I had some great conversations with people who had been looking for an excuse to get back into reading or enjoyed reading but never really found the books in which they were interested. There was one guy who admitted that he did not like to read but would give John Irving a try (I'm going to say that's a point for my own enthusiasm). Only two people turned me down flat and I'm just going to say they were having off days and hope that I run into them next year.

As for the thirty books themselves, I had such a great time reading them. There were those that I loved as well as those I did not particulary enjoy. I was reading way out of my comfort zone and got to enjoy several books that I never would have read. The experience of reading and sharing my thoughts on these books that so many people care about was invigorating. As people continue to bemoan the death of books I will point back to World Book Night and the wide community that supported it adn continue to feel good about what I do everyday. World Book Night giving was one of the most satisfying things I've ever done, and I am anxiously awaiting next year's batch of books.