Sunday 8 November 2009

A Living Book - me???

I've taken part in quite a few library events since I've written my books - mostly giving talks about how I got published and so on. But this coming Saturday, I've been invited to take part in a rather unusual event at one of the libraries near me (Ingatestone Library in Essex). It's a Living Library Day. The idea is that I, and other so-called 'experts' - (which is very amusing in itself as I don't think I'm an expert in anything, except perhaps drinking too much beer and managing not to fall over) - will act as 'living books' on our subject. My subject of course is writing and getting published, not drinking beer unfortunately! We 'books' then get 'borrowed' by readers, who 'read' us by sitting with us, asking us questions about our subject.

I don't know who the other 'living books' are, but the Readers' Guide says 'books may represent prejudices, stereotypes or experiences', which sounds intriguing. And apparently we 'books' are encouraged to chat to each other while we're sitting on the shelf waiting to be borrowed! So it could be interesting. Sounds like it could end up with books arguing amongst themselves!

The rules include the fact that 'living books' may not be taken out of the library - bit of a shame if I happen to get borrowed by any fit young men, or anyone who'd like to take me to the pub to read me! - and also that 'living books' may return themselves to the shelves if they should encounter any rudeness or aggression from readers.

It sounds like it could be fun - hope so, anyway! My only real concern is that I might end up 'on the shelf' for the whole afternoon with nobody borrowing me, which could be a tad humiliating - but then again, no more humiliating than book signings I've done in the past where I've sat on my own the whole time, chewing my pen!

Well, it's all good PR if nothing else. And back when my first Sheila Norton book was published, I made a promise to myself that I wouldn't turn down any opportunities like this if I could help it.
I'll let you know how it goes!

12 comments:

  1. Hi Olivia

    An interesting concept, 'living books'. I hope you get a queue of readers. There are a lot of 'would be' authors out there, so you could be quite busy!

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  2. That sounds very interesting and rather exciting.
    In fact it sounds like an adventure - can't wait to hear all about it.

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  3. You'll be flying off the shelf, Olivia! I've never heard of a Living Book event before - what an interesting idea. I hope you enjoy it and get to have some beer at the end.

    Julie xx

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  4. I've never heard of this before but it sounds interesting. Let us know how it goes.

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  5. Thank you all! Yes, I'm quite looking forward to it and I hope you're right, Martin and Julie, that I'll be busy rather than languishing on the shelf!

    I'll let you know after next weekend.

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  6. What a fantastic idea. Am sure you'll have a great time (and will be hugely busy) - look forward to hearing about it.

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  7. What an unusual and really good idea; I'd love to know who came up with it. And can't wait to hear how it goes, Olivia!

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  8. Thanks Kate, thanks Helen. The librarian at Ingatestone (who also works at our own village library!) has organised the event but I'll have to ask her whether it was her own idea. Very different, isn't it! No-one else seems to have heard of such a thing! Let's hope the people of Ingatestone get into it! x

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  9. Ooh I say! Maybe we should adopt this idea at the library where I work? I hope it goes well anyway, and don't let anyone date stamp you :o)

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  10. Ha! Thanks Karen! I'll let you know how the event turns out. Not a lot of preparation I can do, really, so I'm just sitting here trying to guess what questions I might be asked if I get any 'readers'. Hope I don't get flummoxed and have to look up the answers in a 'real' book!

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  11. JUst fell into this very interesting blog and shall be back soon..

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  12. Hi Jan! Nice to see you here, glad you fell in! Come back soon ...

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