I “like” dead authors

As a former English major and avid reader, I – like others—have noted that classics of English literature appear with increasing frequency on the front sales tables of my neighbourhood bookstores. I put it down to movie adaptations stirring up interest in authors like Jane Austen (yawn). I’m sure that Kenneth Branagh’s adaptation of Henry V turned my son (and most everyone else) into a Shakespeare fan, something school never did.

 But who would have guessed that many of the dead greats live on? No, not in endless re-editions of their works, but in social media. They have been reincarnated on the Web.

 Last January 11, author Julianna Baggott wrote in The New York Times that she “started obsessing over the Facebook “likes” of authors — living and dead.” In her search, she found that living authors like Stephen King, “is doing extremely well in the virtual world with, when I last checked, over four million likes […]. The Stephen King – Writer page also thrives, at 573,081 likes. Even “Steven king” had over 98,000 likes.”

 More interesting, she found that Jane Austen had 628,548 fans, while the “Texas-­twanged Jane Austin” had 37,499.

But, she says, “few can beat Shakespeare’s hefty 3.9 million likes.” He is beat, though by Maya Angelou at 4,046,225 Facebook likes (Have you ever read her? I haven’t). But not to outdone, Shakespeare has a second-tier page — “Infamous Poet and Playwright” — with 1.7 million fans.

 And these authors, and many other departed, also live on Twitter. Some have many alter-egos. Some are also podcasting!

 I find this quite creepy. I’m all for keeping literature alive, but, really? I can only imagine literary groupies holed up in their parents’ basements drafting tweets for “their” author.

 I do like a great many of these authors, but am limiting my following to the printed word—in hard copy, at that.

 

 

Happy Meal, Happy Reader?

In recent international news that didn’t make the front page in Ottawa: MacDonald’s in the UK is set to become that country’s biggest children’s book distributor. On January 9 it launched its Happy Reader campaign. The goal: to hand out 15 million books by the end of 2014. And it’s being sneaky about it: the books are the “prize” in every Happy Meal, replacing the usual much-coveted-but-soon-thrashed "collectible" toys. The initial campaign runs for 5 weeks, till February 12.

The spur was data compiled by Britain's National Literacy Trust, which showed that half of British kids didn’t really like reading and about a third didn’t own a book. Surprising from the land of Shakespeare, British children rank 25^th in world literacy tests. (The OECD ranking places Canada 6^th – above OECD average -- and the US 17^th .)

The first phase of this long-term campaign features non-fiction books, from DK Books' Amazing World Series, with categories of Stars and Planets, Big Cats, and Oceans, among others. The books also come with puzzles and stickers.

Want to read more? The meals also come with a voucher that children – given a payment of £1-- can redeem for a book of their choice at bookseller WH Smith. And throughout the year, new ‘Happy Readers’ book offers will be displayed on Happy Meal boxes, for redemption at WH Smith. And if your child is hungry for information rather than fries, MacDonald’s is also selling the books in its UK restaurants.

This campaign follows a successful pilot in 2012 that saw 9 million books given away.

But is the book giveaway a good thing? Obviously not every thinks so, pointing to the growing obesity crisis in the UK  and the high caloric value of Happy Meals?

As the grand-mother of a 5- and 8-year old who love books, I can only wish MacDonald’s exported this campaign to North America.