Bibliofreakblog

Give Away & the Awesomeness of Greg Mortenson

This post was originally titled: Give Away Winner, Greg Mortenson Reading, New Give Away Due to the Awesomeness of Greg Mortenson, a Mini Review and Why You Should Never Wear Your Highest Heels to a Reading.

But I thought that was a little long.  So hopefully the shortened version caught your attention.

As you have probably figured out though, this is kind of a long post.

First of all, old business:

The winners of Alexander’s Bridge are Aik and Jessica!  

I’ll e-mail you to get your info!

Now, on to new business:

Last night I went to a reading (I use the term loosely because there wasn’t actually any reading involved) of Greg Mortenson, the author of Three Cups of Tea and Stones into Schools.  

I got there 45 minutes early, and the line to get into the building was already about three blocks long. 

It was drizzling, but not too bad, and they let us in soon after.  The reading was held at Seattle University’s Braugham Pavilion–which turns out is not a Pavilion but a basketball court.  

Going to a reading by yourself has it’s advantages: I found a single seat open in the center, though in the back.

Greg Mortenson was interesting.  As much as he tours to promote his books and the Central Asia Institute, he doesn’t have his speech memorized.  I don’t actually say that as a compliment as he lost his train of thought a few times.

I misunderstood the directions of where to go to get my book signed when the reading was over, and by the time I figured it out, I was at almost the end of the line.  Then they invited all the kids and their parents to form a separate line in the front.  Just that line took an hour.  But by then, I’m going, well, I’ve already waited an hour, I’m not giving up.

Ditto after two hours.

And at three hours, it was past 11 PM, and my feet were killing me because not only was I wearing my super high boots–the ones that give me like 4 inches–but also a dress so sitting on the floor was awkward.

Besides the fact that the auditorium–sorry, Pavilion–was standing room only, Greg spent time talking to everyone who came through.  They had asked for no pictures, but each time someone took out their camera, he insisted they come behind the table to pose.  

Seriously, I have never, ever seen a writer take so much time when signing books.  Even when the lines were much shorter.

Granted, Greg Mortenson in and of himself is sort of a marketing tool for CAI.  However, while they passed out envelopes for donations, they didn’t take donations there.  Though I think that people would be far more likely to give money when they’re there and all fired up.  

By the time it was getting to be my turn, my brain was getting sleepy.  The friends I made in line and I weren’t even that sure we had anything to say to the guy at this point.  

But I asked him if the women at the vocational center got their cell phones, and he said that yes they did and it blew up after that–it was almost scary what happened, that there’s like 130 vocational centers now and they have their own organization.  Had I been last tired I may have made a joke about that’s what happens when you give women phones, because we love to talk.  On second thought, that’s so corny, I’m glad I didn’t say anything.  

So, then he hands me this kids book, Listen to the Wind, that’s based on Three Cups of Tea.  I knew that he was giving kids, teachers, and librarians free books to donate to schools and libraries, but he just sort of randomly said, here, can you find a home for this?

I said yes, I have a book blog and I’ll give it away in an international contest.  In fact, I already gave away Three Cups of Tea and sent it to England this summer.  

So he signed it and handed it over, and then I (finally) left.

The kicker is, that due to my new internship, I could have gotten a press pass.  Then I would have skipped to the front of the line in the beginning, and probably would have been close to the front of the signing line.  Ah well.

The kids’ book is super cute.  I found some pictures online:

The little felt people make up the pictures that accompany the story, and the photos are from the back of the book.

I’m not really sure how to review a children’s book.  I have none, and my myriad nieces and nephews don’t live anywhere near here, so I have nobody to test this on.

The story itself is the same as in the adult book Three Cups of Tea, which I reviewed, so you can look to that if you wish.

The Contest!

As I promised, it is INTERNATIONAL!

To enter, YOU MUST go visit Central Asia Institute, tell me a fact or something interesting about them AND LEAVE ME THE LINK TO THE PAGE YOU FOUND IT ON.

I WILL NOT COUNT ANYONE WHO DOES NOT DO THIS.

But then there are extra ways of entering:

Tweet about this: (+1)
Subscribe to my newsletter (+1)
Blog about this (+1)

This contest will go until…let’s give it two weeks since I’ll be out of town for the holidays.  O.K., the contest will go until the end of the year.  So you have until 2010 hits Pacific Standard Time.