Saturday, October 8, 2016

one special book




The Heywood Hill bookshop is celebrating their 80th anniversary with a drawing, which includes a spectacular first prize.

From their website:

"First prize is a lifetime's subscription to our famous A Year in Books service. The lucky winner will never need to buy a book again. They will be sent a new hardback book, individually chosen to suit their particular reading taste, every month FOR LIFE wherever they live in the world.
Second prize will be a one-year subscription to A Year in Books, and third prize a hardback book every other month for a year."

Nice, right?


It's a free drawing, open to all. To enter, you must answer just one question:

"Simply tell us which single book has meant the most to you, published in English since Heywood Hill opened in 1936."

I have been pondering this question at odd moments for several days now, and still don't have the answer. (But I will, before entries close on 31 October.)

What keeps springing to mind are books I read over and over again in childhood. Or unheard-of books given to me by friends, which I then carried from place to place for years. Books that became old friends, or that broadened my vision in some way. Books that inspired, entertained, instructed, influenced or dazzled me deeply.

But "meant the most to me"? It's a difficult question, but one that I very much enjoy mulling over in odd moments. So, in a way, I have already been given a prize by the Heywood Hill bookshop, and I've not even entered yet!

Which single book would YOU name?

I hope my readers will enter this drawing, and also share your thoughts in the comments below. Maybe some of us will discover shared favorites, or - I'm hoping! - find titles to add to our "must read" lists :)
~~~~~