Introducing The Great Monthly Book Giveaway

Posted byofftheedgegardeningPosted inbooksTags:, ,

I have been feeling singularly uninspired.   Blame it on the time of the year, blame it on the weather, blame it on the state of the universe, blame it on the boogie.   It just is.  I am struggling to find my factory setting “annoyingly upbeat” persona.

Then a book arrived, delivered by our very own Stealth Postie, a gift from my good friend and most talented jeweller Div.   Postcards Stories written by Jan Carson, not one previously on my literary radar.   Every day in 2015 the author wrote a short story on the back of a card and posted it to a friend, and this diddy little book features the best of them.  It is finished, I have eaten every last crumb.  And I greatly enjoyed it.   It was an appropriate choice.

In a similar vein I have periodically, with my usual randomness, been posting cards to friends, delving into a reservoir amassed over the years, always attempting to match subject to subject.  A dating agency of sorts.  I decided there was no need to hoard these jewels picked up in galleries and museums, tourist information and local shops, they were better off shared.  The joy of receiving something in the post far outweighs the ping of an email.  It was a way of sending a little joy.  A drop only, but a drop is better than a bill or someone trying to sell you life insurance.  On the reverse of these cards there are no clever and concise stories lurking, just the odd rambling “I thought you might like this” “Reminds me of you” or other such dull lines.  It is my hope that the card itself makes up for my lack of poetry.

And then in a flash, or maybe a slow fizzle, it came to me. The catalyst of course was the ever-generous Div.  A new project.  Each month of this year I am going to send a book to someone and share on my blog why I have chosen the particular book and the particular person.  Not a book review, or a person review even, just why I thought they would be a good match.  Perhaps there will be feedback from the recipient, perhaps not.  Perhaps you will be inspired to seek out the book, perhaps not.  It will be called The Great Monthly Book Giveaway, a title which contains only one possibly inaccurate word.

I am once again feeling inspired.

25 thoughts on “Introducing The Great Monthly Book Giveaway”

  2. I always pick up cards at galleries and then they clutter up drawers, much nicer to send them. Postcards stories, what a lovely idea. And what a lovely idea for a monthly
    blog project. And even nicer if you can do a poem with it. Or a limerick.

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  6. Such a brilliant idea and generous as it will take thought, time and money.
    I have always sent postcards to my parents, my father always sent me postcards from his travels. I have kept all those, I will show you one when we next meet, it sums up my father’s and my sense of humour to a T.

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  7. Lovely post, and a grand idea. I think that many of us feel like that, and blame it on all that. I’ve always enjoyed receiving and sending postcards, but they tend to be few and far between nowadays. Happy reading. xx

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  8. I’m so pleased you’re still using snail mail. So many people say they’re saving the planet by not using it and send a quick text instead. It’s really not the same.

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  9. A lovely young gardener named Gill
    Took her book choices off to the till
    She gave it some thought
    And her good spirit sought
    To lift her to top of the hill

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      1. That girl with the big golden boot
        Was by some considered a hoot
        She planted and dug
        Kept her trowel in a trug
        Let us all give Gill a big toot!

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  10. Pingback: The Random Book Giveaway – The Library, a Fragile History paired with Maggie – Off The Edge Gardening

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