Campaign News
May 31st, 2007
Latest News: London Book Project Goes Down Under
We've just received news that the London Book Project has travelled down under - all the way to Australia!
The Sydney Morning Herald published an article about the whole LBP shenanigans earlier this week.
Thanks to the blogging community for letting us know.
London Book Project Enters the Blogosphere
The London Book Project (LBP) officially entered the blogosphere yesterday after appearing as a 'pick of the day' item on boingboing.net
The post, entitled "London book project to flood the tube with free books" appeared at number ten on the site, which is billed as an online 'directory of wonderful things'.
Bloggers around the world rallied to endorse the project. "What an incredible idea. If only Seattle had a metro system this project would rule!!!" writes Young and Hungry.
"A user created, free book exchange on the London Tube. Awesome. Leave a book, take a book. I love this idea and want to implement it in NY," posts Sam Ewen on the YouVert blog.
Meanwhile, Jon Lowder brands us as a bunch of Literate Hippies invading the London Underground.
We've even crossed the language barrier - "Haciendo del metro una gran biblioteca", posts Juliana Boersner for the world's Spanish speaking audience on her blog, Papel en Blanco.
Discussion of the LBP is most heated in Amman, Jordan. "Where would you think such a project would work in terms of infrastructure in a city as small as Amman?" asks Roba Al-Assi on her blog And Far Away. "It could totally work if we put the books in maktabit shooman, in the british and french council mathalan, inside all social clubs and gyms, in couple of seriously expensive cafes... i think if we do that we can make it work", replies 'wa7id'.
Finally, take a look at these blogs talking about the LBP frenzy: hombrelobo, Libraries to go, Canogle and the electric stranger.
London Book Project's Facebook group passes the 200 mark!
More than 200 people have now joined the London Book Project group on social networking site Facebook.
People from around the world have expressed an interest in the idea of leaving second-hand books on the Underground network.
"That's the best idea I've heard in a long time! How cool...", writes Elspeth Kent, of the London School of Oriental and African Studies Network on the Book Project's message board.
The scheme is also gathering pace outside the UK. "Sounds like a great idea. I've only ever been to London once in my life, but maybe I could start off a Sydney branch of the same thing", posts Timothy Bednall of New South Wales, Australia.
The London Book Project has distributed more than 1000 free books on the Tube network since its launch last week. Day five will see a further batch set free across the city.
Update on Week One
"Free books instead of free papers". The London Book Project had a successful blitz of free book give-aways last week as the project was launched across London. Our army of distributors were out and about on the London Underground with box loads of free books.
Having stationed ourselves next to this (very friendly) guy from the londonpaper outside Angel Tube on Wednesday, we decided to give him a break and headed for a further eight lines of the Underground instead.
If you were travelling on the Circle, Hammersmith & City, Metropolitan, Northern, Piccadilly, Victoria, Bakerloo or District lines you might have seen us!
Take a look at our pictures! Here's a clip from LBC News radio which ran a story on the London Book Project's launch on Wednesday.
Check back here for more campaign news as the Book Project gathers pace across the city. Have you seen any of our books? Let us know!
