Hi,

Now, here’s how it works.

I have seven books. One for each day of the week, starting from September 27. Every morning I post a question, not a quiz, I just want to hear from you, dear reader. I will choose one person each day (a random choice), and at the end of the week, I parcel the books off to you. The first book giveaway is at http://www.literaryangels.com/archives/88, visit the link, and answer the question there.

I bet you want to know what these books are. I won’t give away the titles, but the books – the books with uncracked spines – are by Mark Twain, Roald Dahl, Leonard Mann, Bill Bryson and two super secret authors. I have chosen these books carefully, they are connected with the art of reading and writing, and are a valuable addition to your library. And they are all entertaining reads.

May I ask for one teeny-weeny favour though? Spread the word. Twitter about the giveaway, write a blog post about it, get your friends to spread the word too and let me know. If you would do me this huge favour (and tell me about it) you stand to win the Super Nice Book At The End Of The Week! Oh, and I promise to have more giveaways. One every month. What do you think?

Here are the rules for my giveaway, courtesy Meethil Momaya, who is also running a book giveaway for JoGW on his wildlife blog Jungle Book.in

Here is the step by step guide:

1. Read the blog post of the day – there will be one for each day start­ing 27 September
2. Reply to the question(s) in the blog post, if any. Or fol­low the instruc­tions at the end of each post
3. If your com­ments don’t show up, don’t panic, they might be held up for moderation.
4. The contest for a book will close at mid­night of each day
6. Win­ner of the pre­vi­ous day will be announced on the fol­low­ing day
7. Title of the book will be kept undis­closed till the end of the week
8. All books will ship 4 Octo­ber onwards
9. Open to res­i­dents of the world
10. A spe­cial gift will be announced at the end of the week

Do This.

1. Use the same email id for all com­ments across the week
2. You may leave behind more than one com­ment each day
3. You may reply to other peo­ples comments
4. You may spread the word (twit­ter, blog, FB wall, etc.) and get your friends to join in
5. Give con­struc­tive criticism

Don’t Do This

1. Do not use mul­ti­ple email ids. Your IP will be monitored
2. Do not use foul lan­guage. You will not win
3. Do not wait till the 11th hour to com­ment, don’t trust tech too much

Why am I doing this? Well, other than it giving me a thrill to be able to give really nice books away to people I haven’t met yet, I am also introducing my baby, Literary Angels, to the world. Since I hope to work with books all my life, I hope I get a lot of readers to like me.

To dig deeper and know why I am really giving away the books, here’s the story:

At the end of a sleepy, leafy lane close to my school was my library. Keith’s Book Shack. I remember everything, everything about it. The dust, the dogs snoozing in the corner, the place where all the Agatha Christies were kept (first row, second shelf from the top), the Perry Masons, and my number – 7497.

That library changed me.

I cannot forget the kindness the old librarian showed me when I had too little money and just one more book that I wanted to borrow. He gave it to me. To keep. I stammered and refused, he smiled and pushed the book towards me. It was a slim volume of Peanuts. I never was a fan of the dog, and I still am not. But, it’s the first book I see when I open my bookshelf. That day, I felt the joy of receiving.

That day has led to this day, twenty years later. You could say that it is a tribute to the kind librarian who once gave me a book.

What goes around, comes around…

Lost in a good book,
Ahalya Naidu
http://www.literaryangels.com/

Another Book Giveaway during the Joy of Giving Week

Excerpts from her mail to me are below.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ahalya Naidu

Also, there's another book giveaway running during the Joy of Giving Week. My friend, the wildlife photographer I once told you about, Meethil Momaya, he is also running a free book giveaway. He is also giving away 7 books and a special one for those who spread the word :)

Am pasting his latest question:
http://www.junglebook.in/archives/64

Band­hav­garh Tiger Reserve is famous for its tigers. Peo­ple from all over the world come here to see and pho­to­graph the big cat. But Band­hav­garh ¹ is burst­ing at the seams – not with tigers but with Maruti Gyp­sies. A case of over­ex­po­sure at its worst. Dur­ing peak tourism sea­son, the jun­gle is as chaotic as a mela. It’s dis­turb­ing for the ani­mals and depress­ing for the trees. Last sea­son, the admin­is­tra­tion restricted the num­ber of cars enter­ing from each of the three gates. The thought behind the action was pri­mar­ily traf­fic con­trol – not for­est health. But all the expo­sure has its ben­e­fit – the national park or its tigers won’t be dis­ap­pear­ing any­time soon.

Abun­dant infor­ma­tion leads to abun­dant tourism, abun­dant tourism leads to abun­dant rev­enue, which leads to abun­dant tourism-related infra­struc­ture (guides, lit­er­a­ture, hotels, restau­rants, etc) which again leads to abun­dant tourism. Vicious circle.

On the other hand, Narara², a part of Marine National Park³, suf­fers in silence. It is one of the rare places in the world where you can see Corals with­out hav­ing to dive under­wa­ter. Dur­ing my last two vis­its there I saw not one. Muddy deposits have choked them to death. The muddy water is a result of con­struc­tion activ­i­ties car­ried out to lay pipes for a major oil com­pany. Did you know about this place? Then how will you know what is killing it?

Lack of infor­ma­tion leads to lack of tourism, lack of tourism leads to lack of rev­enue, which leads to lack of tourism-related infra­struc­ture (lit­er­a­ture, guides, hotels, restau­rants, etc) which again leads to lack of tourism. Vicious circle.

The onus of respon­si­ble tourism lies on us, the tourist. We should not only ensure that a place is not dam­aged by our vis­its, but, we should also ensure that a place does not die because we do not visit it.

Warm regards,
Ahalya