40 Days and 40 Ways ...(to help) #22 Share a Book

Let's just chit chat for a moment about one of my other passions - reading! I read (hehe) that 1/3 of high school graduates never read another book after they graduate!! (This was from a survey done by the Jenkins Group, an independent publishing services group) Is that nuts or what?! I don't know if it's just all the new technology or that these people just never found a book that moved them in some way. It was devastating to read this as a teacher, and a reader. Therefore, I began searching for ways to help :)

One great way to help would be to help out the library! You can donate your old books to your public library! I know that in this economy a lot of people are turning to the library for various reasons such as movie rentals, free internet access, entertainment for their kids, etc. What if your donated book caught their eye, they picked it up, checked it out and they loved it so much that they became a lifelong reader???

Okay, maybe not as probable as using this tactic: http://www.bookcrossing.com/ This website suggests that you print off their sticker, put your name on the sticker and put it in a book you have finished. You then register the book and then leave the book somewhere for someone else to find. Maybe a coffee shop, your hotel room, the park, just somewhere that someone will find it. Who knows, maybe that book will really touch their lives. Maybe they are struggling financially, trying to live in a big city and they run across your copy of A Moveable Feast and it inspires them to keep pursuing their passion rather than to give up. Perhaps some guy has been pining after the same girl for years, beginning to consider giving up on her when he finds your cast aside copy of Love in the Time of Cholera (or maybe he realizes it is time to give up if you pass along your Great Gatsby). You could be the reason someone finds their personal legend from reading The Alchemist.

Change the world. Encourage literacy.

Tell me you don't love this idea.