It’s World Book Night! Get a free book.
Koosi commands you to read. “Look into our eyes. You will pick up a book and read. Read!”
It’s still April 23, World Book Day, in some parts of the world, and we’re celebrating it by giving away these books.
Would you like one? Post a one-sentence description of yourself in Comments, and we’ll inform you tonight if you’re getting a free book. (Hint: We are partial to the well-crafted sentence.)
* * * * *
Thank you for your intriguing answers. Some of you we’d like to meet, some we hope we never. You’re so entertaining, we’ll just give you all a book each (Even the one who didn’t get “one-sentence description”). We dropped by National Bookstore in Rockwell today and found a whole bunch of unclaimed books from our past contests. (If you won a prize and never picked it up, tough.) You can have them.
Commenters # 1-32, please give us your full names (They won’t be published).
These are the books we’re giving away:
The Accursed by Joyce Carol Oates; The Time Between by Maria Duenas; Dreamsongs by George R.R. Martin; Franny and Zooey, 9 Stories, and Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters/Seymour by J.D. Salinger; The Fall by Guillermo del Toro; Marvel 1602 comic book; Ribblestrop (signed) by Andy Mulligan; The Dragon with the Girl Tattoo by Adam Roberts; America America by Ethan Canin; 12 by Mannix Abrera; Trese: Unreported Murders by Budjette Tan; Eye in the Sky by Philip K. Dick; Tinker Tailor by John leCarre; 3 Seconds by Roslund & Hellstrom; Zugzwang by Ronan Bennett; In the Stacks: Short Stories About Libraries; From the Memoirs of A Non-Combatant Enemy (signed) by Alex Gilvarry; The Foreign Correspondent by Alan Furst; The Rehearsal by Eleanor Caton; The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception; The Tragedy of Arthur by Arthur Phillips; Camus: A Romance; License to Pawn; Fantastic Women: 18 Tales of the Sublime; Till I End My Song, a poetry collection edited by Harold Bloom; The Invention of Everything by Samantha Hunt; Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday; Dr. Zhivago by Pasternak, in the new translation by Pevear-Volokhonsky; The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt by Caroline Weston; and The Tremor of Forgery by Patricia Highsmith. And 3 DVDs of Ancient Aliens.
Please read this before you claim your prize.
We will put all these books in a big red bag. Then we will leave your names with the Customer Service staff of National Bookstore, Power Plant Mall, Rockwell, Makati. To get your book, just give your name to Customer Service and ask to see the bag of books. Then pick one and enjoy.
We need to have your real name so we can put in on the list. You can start claiming your books on Sunday, 28 April 2013. They’ll be there till 27 May so you have one month. Obviously the sooner you go there, the higher the probability you will get the title you want.
Yes, you can send someone to claim your book. There’s no bureaucracy. Have them tell Customer Service your name so they can find it on the list.
Scientist, you can get your unclaimed copy of The Surrendered. We didn’t put it in the bag. It’s in an envelope with your name on it.
Not all the winners have sent in their full names. If you do not post your full name by Saturday 27 April, 1pm, you cannot claim your book on Sunday the 28th. In that case, wait one week after you’ve posted your name.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
April 24th, 2013 at 07:56
A Dad whose love for reading is hampered only by a son who loves wrestling in bed.
April 24th, 2013 at 08:21
An adapted son of a dystopian reality who pursues an alternate existence through paperbacks and ideals. :)
April 24th, 2013 at 08:25
I now live everyday with the promise of everything going wrong, and always hoping for life to surprise me.
April 24th, 2013 at 08:54
Since I was 5 years old, I don’t think a day has gone by that I did not read fiction —from Funny komiks I picked up in pre-school; to Ashley Andrews Super Ranger, my first book, which I read in grade 1; to the Choose Your Own Adventure series during elementary; to our own Filipiniana that I read one by one in high school; to the Dostoevskys and other classics in college; and to the Austers, Chabons, Rushdies, Kunderas, Roths and McEwans that now accompany my down time.
April 24th, 2013 at 09:00
Nes (a.k.a Earth Angel) is a manic-depressive, obsessive-compulsive 31 year old coffee junkie who lives down south of Manila with her fifteen cats and three dogs.
April 24th, 2013 at 09:43
I’m a recovering clinically depressed writer/ NGO worker slowly making my way back to the social and professional circles that I abandoned three years ago due to my altered mental and emotional status.
April 24th, 2013 at 10:14
Minsan nang tinalo si Holden Caulfield sa dami ng nasigarilyo at ng taong minahal at/o kinagiliwan ngunit hindi ito ang aking pinakamalupit na talento kundi ang matulog na hindi bababa sa labing-apat na oras tuwing Sabado’t Linggo at ang umaatikabong pakikipagkwentuhan sa mga kaibigan na hindi bababa sa anim na oras tungkol sa mga nakakaaliw na bagay halimbawa na ang usapin tungkol sa reyna ng mga anay na sinlaki raw ng tsinelas, digmaang pandaigdig at kung darating ito sa ating henerasyon, SoKor, si Psy at ang katapusan ng mundo, si PNoy, ang kanyang tatlong pakete ng sigarilyo sa isang araw, ang pagkawala ng kanyang buhok at pagiging “capped” ng kanyang mga ngipin, at kung ano ang pinakamasagwang awitin na pinatugtog sa radyo bukod sa awitin nila Aegis at April Boy Regino.
April 24th, 2013 at 10:15
I am a constantly overwhelmed and overworked, but also overfed, rural health physician deployed in Marinduque.
April 24th, 2013 at 10:45
UVDust is a would-be poet headbanging to a cat’s purr and the voices in the dark.
April 24th, 2013 at 10:55
I hug trees.
April 24th, 2013 at 10:59
I am a whore-der.
April 24th, 2013 at 11:17
i was the undefeated speed reading and comprehension champion in grade school – and i have four gold medals to prove it!
April 24th, 2013 at 12:25
I am a registered nurse oblivious to exhaustion, hunger and sleep, working without pay–decent or otherwise–in a world where suicide is considered rather lame.
April 24th, 2013 at 12:41
Still reeling from a semester’s worth of nauseating murder cases, complicated contracts and nap-inducing legal textbooks, this law student is in dire need of a literary vacation before he must dive again into the bottomless ocean of law for advanced summer reading.
April 24th, 2013 at 13:00
I am a black belt in Project Gutenberg.
April 24th, 2013 at 13:11
A warrior, a courtesan, a tyrant, an adulteress, a vagabond, a freedom fighter, a maverick, a myriad alter egos, depending on the book on hand.
April 24th, 2013 at 13:12
I succumb to the parsimonious defaults of life.
April 24th, 2013 at 14:00
Today I am happy because I convinced a friend that stem cell therapy for her hair loss problems might be risky considering how much is unknown about their mechanism of action and that none of the stem cell success stories have ever given consideration to the placebo effect.
April 24th, 2013 at 14:09
I am a neurotic mother of one, currently and actively engaged in corporate prostitution and above-average feline obsession.
April 24th, 2013 at 15:25
I was born in a speeding Renault on the South Superhigway, one month too early. We didn’t pay toll.
April 24th, 2013 at 15:36
The last book I read was Peekaboo Forest… can I cry now?
April 24th, 2013 at 16:08
I am a “ma’am”, often called “sir”.
April 24th, 2013 at 16:16
I was not born pretty nor rich, but I have ambition and I smile a lot.
April 24th, 2013 at 16:23
Starved for stories.
April 24th, 2013 at 16:24
I’m holding off my dreams–go to law school and fall in love–to nurse my terminally ill father.
April 24th, 2013 at 17:59
I am an itinerant bleeding heart who thinks that the world needs more people like Bono and not The Kardashians.
April 24th, 2013 at 18:20
I am a lit fan lit, with paper catching fire, kindling not.
April 24th, 2013 at 18:53
At 42 years old, I just became an owner of two dogs and officially, I am the butt-wiper of one of them because, otherwise, he would butt-paint the floors with his poop.
April 24th, 2013 at 19:06
I guess this nth attempt to describe myself, as I can’t quite decide what to tell, says something about how much I worry about things like people’s perception and interpretation.
April 24th, 2013 at 20:02
Noel Cabacungan is an island, ignore me if I’m wrong.
April 24th, 2013 at 23:09
I have that thing called literary promiscuity. I read 3 or 4 books at the same time without any intention of actually finishing them anytime soon. Yes, I am going to admit it officially in the Webternet that, I, a person with a real job, do steal books from friends’ collection, backpacker’s library and some cruiseship libraries. Though its quite tempting to pinch books from a bookstore, say Kinokuniya, I still shiver at the thought of going to prison with no books or a library.
April 24th, 2013 at 23:51
I am looking for something to love so it may kill me.
April 25th, 2013 at 00:29
It’s after midnight. We are no longer accepting entries.
April 25th, 2013 at 00:44
I like playgroundlove’s entry. funny.
April 25th, 2013 at 00:56
I lose myself to a hundred mundane concerns everyday and find it again staring back from my dog’s coal-black, affectionate eyes.
April 25th, 2013 at 01:06
Late entrance, early exit. ‘Yan ang dramatic!
Akoy maganda pa rin mabango kaakit akit mga pogi at mga macho lokong loko sa alindog ko, Ang sex appeal nitong lola niyo MAY ASIM PA NAMAN AKO
April 25th, 2013 at 02:53
Too bad I log in for work at exactly 12 mn, when and where I peruse your site. It was a nice thought though to be giving away free books. More power!
April 25th, 2013 at 09:21
I’m just finding my place, trying to live and hope to find a little bit of truth. I know its late, still hopeful —
April 29th, 2013 at 12:08
I got my book yesterday. Many thanks, Jessica.
April 29th, 2013 at 18:57
got my Joyce Carol Oates! thanks!
May 6th, 2013 at 19:15
Got mine! Thanks!
May 13th, 2013 at 12:42
my minion just got mine. thank you!