neadods | Book Lovers: Help me choose!

So. There's this thing called World Book Night. It started in Britain, but the US has woken up and this year gave away 1 million special-edition books, including The Hunger Games, Little Bee, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, A Reliable Wife, The Poisonwood Bible, The Namesake, The Lovely Bones, and (ironically) The Book Thief.

You know me. Free books? I'm SO there! I've signed up for World Book Night notices, and I've just got the one asking me to send in suggestions for 4 books to be given away next year. Fiction, nonfiction, classics all allowed. (They aren't interested in children's books.) They tend to trope towards classics and bestsellers, but I'm still going to put in a pitch for some outliers.

The problem is - only 4? I can think of 40! Which books do I pick? The Checklist Manifesto? Having Our Say? The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes? Dandelion Wine? Holmes on the Range? In the Bleak Midwinter? Chicks Unravel Time? (and congrats to everyone who is published in that, by the way.) The latest of any number of authors I know?

Sing out in comments. If you could encourage anyone to read book X by giving out copies of something you really loved, it would be...? (And authors, go ahead and pimp your work.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Joan Aiken's The Butterfly Picnic
Patricia Finney "Gloriana's Torch"

I think they have to currently be in print, which would disqualify The Butterfly Picnic. (I'll have to hunt down a personal copy of that. The only Aiken I've read is her YA stuff and Jane.)

I'll have to check out Gloriana's Torch too. There's a world of great Tudor fiction. If the language wasn't so stiff, I'd suggest Ruled Britannia; with Bring up the Bodies just out I'm wondering if there's going to be a swell of votes for Wolf Hall.

Or flip to fact - have you read Queen Elizabeth's Spymaster by Hutchinson?

Dickens: Bleak House; Our Mutual Friend
Bill Bryson: Shakespeare
Lois McMaster Bujold: Shards of Honour; The Warrior's Apprentice
Josephine Tey: The Singings Sands; The Daughter of Time
John Buchan: The Thirty-Nine Steps; The Gap in the Curtain
Shakespeare: Hamlet; Much Ado About Nothing
Erich Maria Remarque: All Quiet on the Western Front (which was the book I selected from last year's shortlist)
Neil Gaiman: Neverwhere; Anansi Boys
Terry Pratchett: Small Gods; Night Watch
Penelope Lively: The House at Norham Gardens
Donna Andrews: We'll Always Have Parrots
Anne Perry: The Face of a Stranger

Hmm, methinks I'd better stop there!

You're supposed to help me narrow it down, not widen the field! :D

I'm seriously considering tossing Pratchett's Nation into the pot. If we did the Hunger Games this year, then it's not too young, and it's the Pratchett book I'd recommend to people who don't like fantasy.

*cackles* But FOUR books? No can do, I'm afraid!

Ooh yes, Nation's a good choice.

I signed up for the UK version and gave away "The Time Traveller's Wife" - a nice personal touch as I once wrote a fic where the Doctor managed to send a copy through the Void for Rose.

"I want to tell you again, I love you. Our love has been the thread through the labyrinth, the net under the high-wire walker, the only real thing in this strange life of mine that I could ever trust. Tonight I feel that my love for you has more density in this world than I do, myself: as though it could linger on after me and surround you, keep you, hold you.” (p503, UK pbk ed)

DW apart, I think it's a wonderful choice on either side of the pond.

Where did you go to give it away? I'm trying to figure out a good location for me to park. Of course, it will matter somewhat which book I end up picking.

Dandelion Wine. It's one I buy an extra copy of, to give away. And one I really would like in First Edition, Signed would be perfect.

Also, Watership Down. Yes, it's about rabbits, but it's also about oppressive societies, freedom, and the bravery to stand up and make others free. A worthy tale.

I adore Dandelion Wine, it's one of my top 10 favorites. (Although, considering that this year's list tilts heavily in favor of bestsellers, it would seem Fahrenheit 451 would be more their speed.)

Ah, Watership Down! I went through about a decade there where I reread it every year.

When I had a pet rabbit and it died, I read from that novel over its shallow grave. Twice, because the neighbor's damn dog dug it up the first time.

I too spent time reading and re-reading that one. The movie, while nice, does not do it justice.

You simply can't condense it into 90 minutes and tell it right.

You say they don't want "children's books" -- does that include YA? If it's eligible, I'd definitely recommend So You Want to Be a Wizard by Diane Duane.

My choice for a Bujold would be A Civil Contract.

"Must be currently in print" rules out half a dozen of my automatic choices, sadly. And some others that spring to mind are probably too dark for this purpose, such as A Secret Rage by Charlaine Harris.

They gave out The Hunger Games this year, and that's YA.

I have a few books that I keep an eye out for at used book stores so I can buy extra copies to give away:

"The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" by Robert Heinlein. I know that Stranger is much more famous, but this is definitely my favorite of his works.
"American Gods" by Neil Gaiman. Someone above suggested "Anansi Boys" but I like AG so much more.

See, I MUCH prefer Anansi Boys. I love the humour - and found AG very dark.

But tastes may vary.

I couldn't finish AG, TBH. Too dark.

I finished but I haven't wanted to re-read it, unlike Anansi Boys. (And I was glad American Gods wasn't my intro to NG or I'd probably never have read anything else of his!)

Book Lovers: Help me choose!

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