Get a Free Book!

OK, I'm in. I'm joining the Pay it Forward Book Exchange, initiated by Overwhelmed by Joy. All the cool kids are doing it: Caroline, cloudscome at A Wrung Sponge, Kelly from Big A, little a, and now me. What a great concept! Here's the deal: I get a lot of books, one way and another, and after I've read them I don't always need to keep them around. So once a month (or so) I'll give one away. Just leave me a note in comments that you want to enter, and next week I'll draw a name out and send the winner the book. Easy-peasy, right?

Here's how Overwhelmed describes it:
Most all of us love to read and get “new-to-us” books, right? And if you’re anything like me, you love winning things (what a rush), not to mention getting fun stuff in the mail! So here’s what this book exchange is all about:

1) Once a month I'll pick a book to give away to one lucky reader (you don’t have to have a blog to enter). It may be a book that I’ve purchased new or used, or it may be a book that someone has shared with me that I really like. It’ll probably be a paperback, just to make things easier, but no guarantees.

2) Details on how you can enter to win will be listed below.

3) If you’re the lucky winner of the book giveaway and you have your own blog I ask that you, you in turn, host a drawing to give that book away for free to one of your readers, after you’ve had a chance to read it (let’s say, within a month after you’ve received the book). If you mail the book out using the media/book rate that the post office offers it’s pretty inexpensive. If you're a non-blogger who has won the book, please consider donating the book to your local library or shelter after you're done with it.

4) If you’re really motivated and want to host your own “Pay It Forward” giveaway at any time, feel free to grab the button above to use on your own blog. Just let me [that would be Overwhelmed] know so I can publish a post on my blog plugging your giveaway and directing my readers your way!

OK? So, this month, I have a copy of John Green's fabulous, Printz-Award-winning Looking for Alaska to give away. (If you live in Central VA, by the way, he's coming to speak at the University of Richmond at the end of September.) This is a terrific YA novel, an astonishing debut novel by a writer who has a great career ahead of him. So let me know if you want a copy and I'll be sending one out in a week.

(I got this promotional copy from his publisher, Penguin, by the way. I'll probably have a few more Penguin books to give away in the future, too.)

Again: leave me a comment by August 16, and you could get a copy of Looking for Alaska.