Flashmob!

Last Sunday I participated in what I can only guess is the first ever Romance Reading Flashmob!  Organised by the Australian Romance Readers Association to celebrate both Valentine's Day and the National Year of Reading 2011

The National Year of Reading 2012 is about children learning to read and keen readers finding new sources of inspiration. It's about supporting reading initiatives while respecting the oral tradition of storytelling. It's about helping people discover and rediscover the magic of books. And most of all, it's about Australians becoming a nation of readers.  www.love2read.org.au

A great idea huh! I plan to do my bit!

So back to the flashmob event.

The weather was good to us after a week of on again and off again rain storms. The sun was brilliant, perhaps a little bright for those who attended the previous night's ARRA Awards Dinner (Which I also went to, but the ARRA blog tells that story brilliantly so click on the link to read all about it!)

So at 11am we congregated on the historic Pyrmont Bridge in Sydney and brought out our romance novels and started reading.

All at the same time!

Here I am shamelessly reading my own book. Well, what book would you expect me to read? I have to say I was thrilled to see that another of the flashmobbers also had a copy! Okay, she won it from me in a competition, but hey, she brought it along to the event :-) (Thanks Brooke!). I did also have my trusty Kindle with me so I could read something new *vbg*

We all found our space in different ways. Some people set up a picnic :-)

Some sat on benches.  That's Tracey Ohara there on the right! Her partner in crime on the bench there is Erin :-). Behind her are ARRA chair, Debbie on the left, member Barbara in the middle, and the hardworking sponsor wrangler Helen on the right. Shannon Curtis was also there, but a bit further along!

The photographer in the background is Kat (Bookthingo)

The Melbourne crew found some shade.  They're not used to the good weather I guess!

The ladies and gents from Avon Romance and Momentum Books also got into the spirit of it all! I love it that Anne Treasure (Momentum) had her eBook reader!  It wasn't the only one there, but hey, for the local publishing industry to go digital is a wonderful thing! Their website just went live so go check it out HERE





So here's the whole mob. At last count there were more than 40 enthusiastic romance readers! Who said Romance fiction isn't popular in Australia? Publishers and booksellers take note!

I'm looking forward to the next one!

Thanks to ARRA for organising it :-)