Now, online book-ing

Participate in this gifting programme started by the founders of a Twitter club and discover new authors, genres.

It has been a year since Sudha Ganapathi, Raghav Modi and Rahul Gupta launched The Sunday Book Club (TSBC) on Twitter, which encourages a discussion on books online. Now the founders are looking to take their over 1,600 followers, and ‘bookies’ at large, out of the virtual world and into the real one by initiating a book gifting programme.

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“Over the year, we've almost become like a small community, or rather family, and this seemed like a good step forward,” says Ganapathi, adding that participation is open to all. “We’re trying to take it international and might be able to do so.”

The TSBC Book Exchange is based on the Secret Santa concept. Each participant is paired off with a person whom he/she has to send one to three books. The participant will also receive books in a similar manner from another individual. "We've been thinking on this line for a while and our anniversary seemed like an apt time to go ahead. Another reason was that we wanted to challenge our audience. By taking part in the exchange, you don't know what books you will get. It could be something that you might not have picked up in a bookshop, or didn't even know about, so you'll discover a whole new world of authors, literature, stories, and magic,” says Modi.

The books are not meant to be returned. Participants are asked to send readable books in good condition, but not necessarily new. If someone fails to send books or sends some which are in a terrible state, they could simply be banned from future events. And what about the costs? "This is a participant-driven exchange. We are the facilitators. So the cost of the books and the postage are borne by the participants," says Gupta.

Since this is their first try, only 50 spots are open as part of the programme. The exchange has fixed dates and once the registration is done, addresses will be exchanged and ample time will be given to each participant to send the books. “We hope to send the addresses in a week and then give roughly three weeks time to send the books,” says Ganapathi.

To sign up, visit tsbookclub.wordpress.com