I love the Toronto library. I do. We’ve been going steady about three years now, and if I still doodled in notebooks, you might see JK + TPL in the margins. We have a great relationship, after all. With 99 branches, it’s always there when I need it. I ask for things, and like a generous lover, it grants them. It surprises me with special treats, like free AGO passes and visits from marquee authors (last year’s Rushdie event was a gold star occasion). But before I get all couch-jumpy Tom Cruise on you, suffice to say, the TPL is one of this city’s great treasures.
They also run a pretty fine marketing campaign, and this year their Keep Toronto Reading campaign is back. It’s a multi-faceted campaign that combines extra author events, a city-wide book club (this year reading Judy Fong Bates’s Midnight at the Dragon Cafe), and a book recommending network that includes travelling journals, twitter recos, and YouTube recommendations. This year they’ve got a new theme, and they want recos for a book that transformed you in some way.
Since book recommending (especially on video) is kind of our bag, I thought we could help them out last year and we rounded up 25 book lovers to put themselves on camera and convince us to read a book they love. This year we’re doing it again, and we’re aiming higher — more people, more videos, and more great recos, starting March 28th. We’re inviting authors, bloggers, booksellers, librarians, publishing folk and all the book lovers we can peer pressure to join in the book party. Videos will appear here daily, as well as on the TPL website. As an added bonus this year, our friends at the TPL have agreed to do their best to acquire all the KIRBC-recommended books so that legions of Torontonians can have access to these fine reading materials.
Now, in order for this campaign to be a success, we need your videos! They only have to be around a minute long, and you don’t have to be a pro. Just tell us about your book, why you loved it, and if applicable, how it transformed you. (And no, you all can’t recommend Eat, Pray, Love.) For more details about submitting, drop me an email. And if nothing else, come back in April and watch the recos, because it’ll be like a KIRBC meeting all month long!
Now to get you inspired, we’ll finish with my favourite video last year, from the hilarious Evan Munday:
This is hilarious Evan Munday. And your book suggestion looks awesome.
Nice post J.
from the west coast,
Kelsey T.
Victoria, BC
Evan…I missed this. I can’t even handle it.
Midnight at the Dragon Cafe has squirmed up the TBR shelves for just this reason (although her newer book about memory sounds very good too). And now I must read Masterpiece Comics too, which means there are currently only 9 of those 12 copies referred to in the video now available to other TO residents. Thanks for the recommendation(s)!
Hey Jen,
Holy, is it that time again already?? I remember doing this last year, taking hours on that video because it was my first time. But it was fun! It will be like my first time again, because I haven’t done one since, so I need some practising… when do you want this by?
@Steph: I bet this year you’ll be a pro. If you could have it by March 26th, that would be awesome, but let me know if that’s a no-can-do.
So good to see Evan’s video again. I think I love it even more this year, if that’s possible.
Love the video and love this book. The parental units picked it up at WOTS last September. Super hilarious and smart.
Jen,
I’ll write it in my book. Just finished the copyedit I was working on so I should have time now!
Now to pick which book… :)
Thanks!
[...] Keep Toronto Reading 2011 [...]
Book lovers, @jen_knoch wants your video book recommendations to Keep Toronto Reading: http://is.gd/JlQNe6
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