BAFAB: Buy a Friend a Book!

BAFAB on Twitter

Follow BAFAB on Twitter for the occasional tweet. I'll try to post any BAFAB contest announcements I find out about there, for example.

About BAFAB's Creator

Buyafriendabook.com began life just in time for BAFAB Week in July of 2005. Site creator Debra Hamel mapped out the basic idea for the site while lying awake one night after an emergency diaper change. Debra is the mother of two and an author. Read more at dhamel.com.

Countdown to the next BAFAB Week:

Welcome to BAFAB, the site that encourages visitors to surprise their friends with the gift of books during four annual "Buy a Friend a Book Weeks" -- the first weeks of every January, April, July, and October.

How to participate in BAFAB Week

Celebrating BAFAB is easy. Just get yourself to a real-life or virtual book store during Buy a Friend a Book Week (the first weeks of January, April, July, and October) and, well, buy a friend a book! But here's the fun part: you can't buy your friend a book because it's their birthday or they just graduated or got engaged or had a baby or anything else. You have to give them a book for no good reason. In fact, this present out of the blue from you should shock the pants off of whomever you decide to give it to. And it'll make them happy. And that's the point: promote reading, promote friendships. Just make sure to let them know about Buy a Friend a Book Week, so they can spread the joy in turn. (How? Print out this explanation of BAFAB or order BAFAB cards or stickers from Zazzle.com.)

What's in it for you?

Apart from the joy inherent in giving, you get to slap a sticker on your web site to advertise your beneficence: select from these possibilities. (If you don't have a web site, stick with that joy in giving thing.) Spread the word by blogging about your choice of book and book recipient. Look at me, you'll be saying to your site's visitors, I am the sort of person who buys gifts for my friends for no good reason. Befriend me! Love me! Read me.

Missed the boat this time?

Didn't hear about Buy a Friend a Book Week until it was too late? Never fear! You could cheat and buy a friend a book off-schedule. We won't tell. But if that's not enough fun for you, you can wait until the next BAFAB Week rolls around. Remember, there are four BAFAB Weeks a year: the first weeks of January, April, July, and October. Sign up to receive posts from the BAFAB blog in your mail and you'll never miss a BAFAB Week. (See the subscription box in the sidebar.) And start thinking now about which unwitting friend you'll be surprising next....

Financial disclosure

Books listed on this site are linked to Amazon and the links contain my affiliate ID, which is to say ~~that I will make money off of sales resulting from clicks on those links~~ [not now, since Amazon stopped allowing CT affiliates to make money because of CT's tax stance]. I have also posted the occasional ad on the site [mostly these are gone]. In theory, then, this is a revenue-producing site. But in fact, the amount of money I've earned from this site is risibly small, and the number of hours I've put into it are very many indeed. This is, in short, a labor of love, intended to in some small measure make the world a better place.