NATIONAL BOOK TOKENS LAUNCHES ‘GLOBAL READS’ AS PART OF ITS CAMPAIGN TO RAISE £10,000 FOR BOOK AID INTERNATIONAL

www.globalreads.co.uk

To celebrate its new Gift Card, National Book Tokens has launched ‘Global Reads’ as part of its campaign to raise £10,000 for Book Aid International. The money raised will be used to distribute 5,000 books to library users across 12 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

Every year over half a million books from Book Aid International arrive in public libraries, local and regional libraries, community libraries, NGO resource rooms and libraries in schools, prisons, universities and refugee camps. Book Aid International Director, Clive Nettleton comments “All the money raised will help us to change even more lives by sending high quality books to libraries and resource centres in sub-Saharan Africa and beyond.”

People from across the world are asked to vote for their favourite Global Read via www.globalreads.co.uk - a book with a global theme that has changed their perception of another country or introduced them to a different culture, such as Half a Yellow Sun or The Kite Runner.

Book lovers visiting www.globalreads.co.uk will be encouraged to share the chance to win new Gift Cards with friends and in doing so, help National Book Tokens raise £10,000.

The results of the favourite Global Read will be announced on 3 June 2010.

To support the campaign a range of high profile celebrities have also contributed their favourite Global Read. Celebrities include Gordon Brown, Alexander McCall Smith and Sophie Dahl.

“lmproving education across Africa is vitally important in eradicating poverty and the Government is committed to helping poor countries achieve the education Millennium Development Goal. I welcome the work that you are doing to send as many books to sub-Saharan Africa as possible and I wish you every success with your campaign.” Gordon Brown, Prime Minister

Sophie Dahl has chosen Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder as her Global Read. She comments, “The book is non-fiction, Kidder's study of Doctor Paul Farmer, an infectious disease specialist, anthropologist and all round good egg, who is the co-founder of a global not for profit called Partners in Heath, who provide free comprehensive healthcare for those living in poverty. The book traverses Haiti, Peru, Cuba, and Russia, and the work of PIH in these countries in a totally accessible, compelling way. As Farmer's message is ‘The only real nation is humanity’, it seems a perfect choice for a global read.”

The current top 10 global reads are:

1. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
2. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
3. Chronicle in Stone by Ismail Kadare
4. Small Island by Andrea Levy
5. The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
6. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
7. Snow by Orhan Pamuk
8. In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar
9. Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee
10. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad