An Opportunity to Give – and Receive (Books)

In lieu of recommending a new book this week, and in the spirit of the holiday season, I would like to introduce you to Worldbuilders, and by extension introduce you to Patrick Rothfuss.

Patrick Rothfuss is the author of a couple of hefty fantasy novels which you may or may not have heard of:  The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man’s Fear, books one and two of the Kingkiller Chronicles.  The books have everything good fantasy novels should have:  great characters, long  journeys, danger, magic, love, hijinks, and enough words to keep a reader entertained for, well, however long it takes you to read 900 pages or so.  Pat has a great blog that I’ve been reading faithfully for about three years, and it was there that I first encountered Heifer International, an organization that provides families worldwide with animals such as goats, chickens, and cows and empowers them to take care of themselves and their children.  I like this organization because the money you donate actually goes to something tangible.  It seems to me that helping people help themselves is one of the best gifts you can give.

So over the years, Pat got his readers to donate to Heifer International, and at some point he created a name for all the fundraising he and his fans were doing.  Worldbuilders seems to get bigger every year, and this year he is trying to top last year’s donations of over $190,000.  But the best part of this fundraiser is that Pat will be giving away hundreds, if not thousands, of donated books and other fantastic items to those who donate through Worldbuilders!  Here’s the short version of how this works.  For every $10 you donate, your name goes in the raffle.  So if you donate $50, for example, your name goes in 5 times.  At the end of the fundraiser, which goes through January 31st, Pat will draw names and give away the hundreds of books that have been donated.  It’s a great opportunity to possibly win a highly collectible book and help a family in need at the same time.  Pat explains things much better than I do, so if you click on the Worldbuilders logo above, you will go straight to his blog.  If you click here, you will be taken to his latest blog post where he describes the bounteous donations of  Subterranean Press, just to give you an example of the books he’ll be giving away.

So if you are looking for a charity to donate to this holiday season, check out Worldbuilders and Heifer International.  And keep reading Pat’s blog.  I know I will.