Ten on the Tenth: Books

Have you heard about World Book Night?  It's a bit of a grand name for something that took place in March of this year and was held only in Britain and Ireland. A million books were given away by 20,000 "givers" - and one "giver" attends my reading group so I received a book first hand. I then spotted that some of my blogging buddies were also "givers" and I received another book by blog giveaway (which was then passed on here).

The second World Book Night will be more worthy of the name as it will include readers in the USA and possibly other countries as well.  It's scheduled for April 23rd 2012 - UNESCO's International Day of the Book and Shakespeare's birthday - Happy Birthday Will!  The U.S. selection has yet to be finalised, but the applications to be a U.K. "giver" and hand out 24 of next year's 500,000 books are being taken now.  I've applied.  It got me thinking about which books I'd recommend:

My all time favourite book has to be "The Time Traveller's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger.  I'm hoping that it might be "my" book if I'm selected as a "giver".  It is intricate and interesting and funny and incredibly sad.  It follows Henry and Clare as they meet, fall in love, marry and try for a family ... complicated by the fact that Henry has a genetic disorder that sends him back and forth within his own time-line so that sometimes he's old in the time of his youth and at others he experiences events in his future.  It's a book that makes you think between chapters!

My second choice from the World Book Night list for 2012 is "Room" by Emma Donoghue.  This is an amazing book, inspired by real events, and narrated by a small boy, Jack, who has never known anywhere except one 11 foot square Room.  He sleeps in Wardrobe, eats at Table and has only Ma for company.  Heartbreaking, inspiring, deeply affecting!

I had to pick a third choice book in my application but haven't actually read it (yet) so can't personally recommend it LOL! However here are a few of my other personal favourites (in no particular order) from the World Book Night Long List:

"The Handmaid's Tale"
by Margaret Atwood

"We Need To Talk About Kevin"
by Lionel Shriver

"Cloud Atlas"
by David Mitchell

"One Day"
by David Nicholls

"To Kill A Mockingbird"
by Harper Lee

"Never Let Me Go"
by Kazuo Ishiguro

"The Kite Runner"
by Khaled Hosseini

"The Curious Incident
of the Dog in the Night-time"
by Mark Haddon

Looking at my selection there isn't a great deal of comedy here although I do enjoy funny books too - perhaps that's a topic for another day?
Are you applying to be a World Book Night "giver"?  Do you like similar books to me?

For more Ten on the Tenth bloggers please pop over to Shimelle's blog here.