What makes a great writer? How about the forbearance and humility to stand in Washington Square on a freezing morning and give away free books to a random crowd of the reading public? Because that’s what Neil Gaiman and Daniel Handler (a.k.a. Lemony Snicket) did for the National Book Foundation’s Great Book Giveaway, organized with the Uni Project, “a nonprofit committed to increasing access to books and learning opportunities through pop-up, open-air reading rooms,” and featuring a free distribution of the finalist titles in the 2014 National Book Awards, “as well as books by Daniel and Neil which they graciously donated.”
Publishers Weekly has a full online breakdown of the event in progress, with pictures and quotes from the scene. The Uni Project, meanwhile, described this as: “our coldest reading room yet. In fact, it was simply too cold to create the reading room we all envisioned for Washington Square Park: a browsable selection of National Book Award finalists. Instead, it was decided (wisely) that Daniel and Neil would have a friendly competition to see who could give away those same books to the public, allowing everyone to go inside and feel their extremities again.”
Daniel Handler’s actions somewhat offset his rather bad attempt at humor during the National Book Awards, and one can only hope the cold in Washington Square was partly to blame for his performance. Neil himself introduced the whole event by tweeting “Like some other people, I am off to Washington Square Park in the cold for FREE BOOKS. But I do not get to keep them. I will give them away.” And he added later: “Very red nose. White face. COLD HANDS.” However, it looks like it was worth it.
