a books & cookies affair

Annej and I recently held a small event called "ABC (A Books and Cookies) Affair" that basically had us giving away our pre-loved books and her freshly-baked cookies all for free.

Yes, all for free!

The idea came about when Annej got inspired by how actress Emma Watson leaves books inside London trains so passengers would pick them up and, basically, read.

Annej wanted to come up with a similar project and I readily agreed. I usually leave my pre-loved books at the Little Free Library in UP Town Center, but I sometimes worry that they end up with resellers instead of people who actually love to read. It would definitely be nice to have an event where I can get to meet fellow bookworms who would adopt my books.

Between Annej and I, we had a lot of books that we could give away, and Michael and my officemate Mika also donated a few books as well. Then we thought we'd also give away samples of Annej's Cookies, Please goodies. Feeling Santa lang kami LOL.

We wanted to hold ABC Affair in one of the restaurants along Maginhawa Street because it's usually teeming with students who would be the perfect audience for this kind of an activity. After going through a couple of places, we decided that Griddle: Steak X Wings was the best venue, and coordinated with them for the event.

Once we locked in the place and the date, we started promoting via Facebook.

Come March 4, Annej and I excitedly set up our little bookshop at Griddle's ground floor. People started coming in: some were our friends, some learned about the event via Facebook, while others were walk-in customers. Griddle also helped us promote the event among their diners and we're definitely thankful for that, as well as their warm accommodation all throughout our event.



An hour into the event, most of the books and cookies were already gone! It was definitely fun meeting the people who were going to our books' new owners, and we'd even recommend titles and share our thoughts about the ones they choice - spoiler-free of course!

Another thing Annej and I both loved about the crowd was that so many of them were kids. Well, by kids I mean college students LOL. At a time when people are hooked to gadgets, it's nice to see that these kids were still into books. Not that there's anything wrong with gadgets - even Annej is into Kindle. But of course, books offer a different reading experience too.

Of course, Annej's cookies were also a big hit. E sa'kin pa lang, halos maubos na e hahahaha! Partida pa she gave me my own box to take home! The variant was chocolate chip with Reese's peanut butter chips, by the way. 

It's funny how people couldn't believe everything was for free, and some even asked us what the catch was. But there was absolutely no catch whatsoever. Basically, we just wanted to encourage more people to read and give our books a nice new home. In the end, I think we successfully accomplished all that.

It was definitely a fun event to hold, and we're already looking forward to holding a part 2. Can't wait! 

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