As part of Edinburgh’s citywide reading campaign, One Book – One Edinburgh, 25,000 books will be given away free to its citizens!
One must appreciate the Utopian seeds in such a gesture but it is also an idea laden with Orwellian overtones.
Here’s the deal:
-“The books will be handed out free to everyone from coffee shops to schools and libraries in a bid to get as many people as possible reading the same book at the same time”.
-25,000 copies in three new editions of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Kidnapped have been published for this event – a paperback, a new graphic novel by comic book artists, author Alan Grant and illustrator Cam Kennedy, and a simplified version
The Joys:
-this clearly shows a desire on the part of the city to promote reading and discussion
-providing anything free to your citizens is a good thing
-providing different forms of the content acknowledges the reality of the playing field
-originally the project called for 15,000 free copies and was then increased to 25,000
The Sorrows:
-why have everyone read the same book? Much too dangerous.
-if the extra 10,000 copies were added because there was no graphic or simplified version to begin with.
Why not provide every book club in the city with a free copy of a book that is slated to be read by the group? and encourage the formation of new book clubs by offering copies of all the titles selected for the first go-around free. This would encourage not only reading but diversity and community.