Mike Watts & Sue LeCren - Books For Free

Sue LeCren and Mike Watts
with Patternotion
 

Two for the price of one!

Both the books and the lovers of art, culture and  'Duke Special' that are holding them here.

A big welcome to the fold for New Zealand's 'Sue the Librarian' and hope you enjoy Patternotion. Don't let your food get cold either, looks delicious.
Keep in touch with Sue on Twitter at @LiSu and as she says herself, 

"I'm an escape artist for a living... I live to escape... well OK, I'm a librarian. Same thing"

Catch her if you can!

 If any of you don't know the distinguished gentleman pictured here then let me introduce you to Mike Watts, who is both a Stem Cell aficionado at UCH and photographer on London's live music circuit. As well as bumping into one another in live music venues he recently accompanied us on all 10 miles of our Patternotion Blue Plaque walk across North London.

It seems he has got itchy feet once again and has travelled a little further than those 10 miles of Patternotion. Have a good time in New Zealand and keep spreading the Books For Free message!

Mike Watts is @DrFizzy if you want to keep abreast of his adventures in your Twitter walking boots.

AL.

Patternotion Blue Plaque Launch - 9th March 2013

Citizen Skwith

Virtually all the pages have arrived at Patternotion HQ and we're busy sorting out the order of the pages and front cover. Today we finalised the details of our launch event and we're excited to share them with you now.

Patternotion is lucky enough to team up with the Books For Free organisation and in particular the inspirational Jaquelyn Guderley. Between us we've organised a Blue Plaque walk with a difference on the 9th March 2013.

We will be starting our walk from the Books For Free bookshop, 147 Fortess Road, Tufnell Park, NW5 2HP at 10am.

All are welcome. So come along!

Our route will take us past 18 authors and poets that have lived or worked in the area. Including Sir John Betjeman, JB Priestley, DH Lawrence, John Keats, Sylvia Plath, Dylan Thomas, HG Wells and George Orwell. We'll be finishing back where we started from in Tufnell Park, where we'll be signing and leaving 10 First Editions of Patternotion for eager collectors to snap up for FREE.

But we're providing you with a little twist........

We'll be placing our own magnetic blue plaques along the way like this one from world renown street artist Citizen Skwith (above). There will be more than 80 plaques of people nominated by the local community and Patternotion authors. Celebrating what is great about Books and the local area!

We wanted to support the scheme that has taken a beating in the last few weeks. In fact English Heritage's blue plaque scheme has been under threat because of budget cuts ( from £130 million to £92 million).
So why doesn't the local community (especially one with such a rich literary past) take up the reins! Guardian Article

If you'd like to nominate someone in NW5, NW3 or NW1 for a blue plaque then tweet Books For Free at @BooksforFreeNW5 with your suggestion, before the 15th February 2013.

If you'd like to join the action via the internet then look out for the #patternotion hashtag on twitter, where we'll be posting 'live' photos as the magnetic plaques hit the streets. We'll also have live GPS tracking of our every move at the SMartwalks website.

London Smartwalk 2011

 Our last book, FreedBook, worked with the brilliant Books For London, who maintain more than 7 book swapping libraries on London's transport system. So its with equal enthusiasm that we find ourselves happy bedfellows with Books For Free and Healthy Planet.

But do they really give away books for Free!

Yes they do! The "Books for Free" initiative rescues unwanted books otherwise destined for landfill or pulping. They redistribute these throughout communities via the Books for Free centres nationwide. By visiting the centres and taking a book, you are reducing the amount of waste that goes to landfill each year and helping to recycle valuable resources. There is no catch and the only restriction is that a maximum of 3 books are taken at any one time.

So we hope you join us for our unusual Blue Plaque walk on the 9th March and support both Books For Free and the Patternotion Book.

AL