Avid Reader offers free books to G20 leaders

Friday, 7 November 2014 Books+Publishing

Avid Reader Bookshop is offering world leaders attending the G20 Summit in Brisbane in November a collection of free books with the proviso that they must pick the books up from the store in person.

Owner Fiona Stager said in a media release that the store has made the offer by writing to the embassies and High Commissions of the G20 countries. In the letter, Stager states: ‘I believe that literacy is a fundamental component of community, national and global development and it is important people see their leaders reading and challenging their thinking with new ideas.’

The books selected include recently released fiction and nonfiction titles from Australian and international authors that ‘cover current issues such as the economics of global warming, accounting, community development, gender bias, science and the futility of war’.

The books are:

This Changes Everything (Naomi Klein, Allen Lane)
The Art of Belonging (Hugh Mackay, Macmillan)
Comradely Greetings (Slavoj Zizek, Verso)
Six Capitals: The Revolution Capitalism Has to Have – Or Can Accountants Save the Planet? (Jane Gleeson-White, A&U)
The Wife Drought: Why Women Need Wives, and Men Need Lives (Annabel Crabb, Ebury)
The Best Australian Science Writing 2014 (ed by Ashley Hay, NewSouth)
Mullumbimby (Melissa Lucashenko, UQP)
The Narrow Road to the Deep North (Richard Flanagan, Vintage).

Avid Reader is located less than one kilometre from the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre where the G20 Summit is being held from 15-16 November. Stager said that due to security measures she cannot personally deliver the books.

‘I think most of the leaders will respond well to this gift offer, however, I understand some may not,’ said Stager.

The G20 is a forum for the governments and central bank governors from 20 major economies.

Category: Local news