Yesterday was the second World Book Night in the USA. I handed out copies of David Benioff’s novel City of Thieves at Hines VA Hospital, which is where I handed out books last year. (Last year’s recap.)

My first destination was the Women’s Health Center and then the cafe (where two baristas accepted books). After that, since Hines already has a book program for inpatients and books are in waiting rooms for those waiting for appointments, I targeted people in the hallways–staff and veterans/dependents that were there for appointments, meetings, etc.

It doesn’t take very long to hand out 20 free books at a busy place like Hines. Maybe 30 minutes if you add in some conversations. Most of the people I approached said yes, but there were some that immediately and definitively said NO. Books were not their bag and they didn’t have time to talk. Also, my pick this year didn’t have the name recognition that my pick last year had which was Stephen King’s The Stand (last year a few people said that they’d seen some of King’s movies and hadn’t read his books, but they’d give it a try).

Below are some pictures of my WBN2013 experience. I didn’t take pictures of recipients because it was just way too busy and crowded yesterday in the hallways of Hines.

The box, the book, the badge of honor.

Welcome to Hines!

I ran into my friend and coworker Ann and her friend Phillip. They were walking in as I was walking out of Hines. Ann handed out Tina Fey’s Bossypants.

Here’s a picture of me. Another rainy day in Chicagoland, but free books seemed to brightened things up!

If you want to get involved with World Book Night next year, I recommend you signup for their newsletter: http://www.us.worldbooknight.org/how-do-i-get-involved/newsletter.