25 March 2014 – 25 March 2016, two years have passed: happy birthday #librosospeso!

You will have heard and read about it everywhere, but today I will tell you what it meant for me to launch the suspended book initiative.
On March 25 two years ago, after a presentation in the bookshop, a reader arrived at the cashier with the book by Irene Némirovsky David Golder and after paying for it he told me:

– I liked this book very much, I leave it to you to give to a reader in your library.
– Do you leave a paid book here for a stranger?
– Yes, the important thing is that you don’t put it back on sale, but you really give it away.
– I promise.

The next morning Michela, a long-time client of mine, arrives at the bookstore, to whom I explain what happened and give her the book left as a gift.
She decides to do the same and so chooses one of her favorite books: Cassandra by Christa Wolf to give to the customer who will enter the bookstore immediately after her.
The reader reacts like Michela and in that moment I understand that something unique and special is happening so I decide to tell it to everyone – yes I’m a chatterbox – and I believe that sharing is the right way for a reality like mine.
What I do?
I go to twitter and think of suspended coffee (the Neapolitan custom of leaving a coffee already paid for at the bar), I type #librosospeso the answer is: your search did not produce results , so I decide to use it to give a “social” name to all ‘initiative.

You know, once launched on the net there is no going back and in this case it went well because the #librosospeso in a week reaches 3 million twitter users; yes 3 million does not seem true to me!
If on the one hand there were many people who married and shared the spontaneous gesture of a reader, on the other, some claimed the paternity of the initiative which, however, had nothing to do with what was already promoted by other realities, because if the hashtag already existed, I would have chosen another name.

This was my #librosospeso which today has hundreds and hundreds of books given away.
On the facebook page of the library you will find an album with all the hands of the people who entered the box and found a suspended book waiting for them.
The spontaneous gesture of a reader continues to repeat itself over the years, this is the best thing!