The people in Starbucks were twitching in their chairs. On
Thursday, however, it was not because of their caffeine rush, but
rather their anticipation as they eagerly awaited the appearance of
novelist Mitch Albom in a Starbucks Book Break.
With their arms clutching Albom’s three novels,
“Tuesdays with Morrie,” “The Five People you Meet
in Heaven” and his latest, “For One More Day,”
they filled the chairs, lined the walls and spilled out of the
doors of the Brentwood coffee shop.
Starbucks is sponsoring Book Break to encourage readers.
Albom’s book will be the campaign’s first. They will be
selling the novel in Starbucks stores across the country and
donating a dollar from each sale to Jumpstart, an organization that
promotes child and adult literacy. On Thursday, Oct. 26, Starbucks
locations all over the country will gather for book discussions
with Albom calling in to each store to answer readers’
questions.
Albom decided to partner with Starbucks for personal
reasons.
“You used to see people on subways or in coffee shops with
books. Now you see them with iPods or text-messaging. Anything that
boosts a return to reading is something all authors should be in
favor of, … and I’m flattered to be only the first of many
authors who will be chosen by Starbucks to do that,” Albom
said. “(Book Break) is a great way to encourage reading as a
collective pursuit, much the way we go en masse to the opening
weekend of a new movie or watch the season finale of a TV
show.”
Albom made his name as a sports writer for the Detroit Free
Press.
After a moving experience with an old friend and life mentor,
Morrie Schwartz, Albom was inspired to write his first novel
“Tuesdays with Morrie,” which became a bestseller and a
movie, and was chosen for Oprah’s book club. His success has
only lead to further fiction.
“A lot of people, after reading “˜The Five People You
Meet In Heaven,’ came up to me and said, “˜You know, I
really like that story, especially when he gets to meet those
people from his life and boy what I wouldn’t give for one
more day with …’ and they would finish the sentence,
“˜one more day with my dad, one more day with my
uncle,'” Albom said.
“I began to hear this so often that I thought that sounded
like an interesting idea for a book. What if someone actually got
one of those days back with somebody that they lost? How would they
actually really spend it? Would it be one of those glorious days or
would it be the same old arguments that you always got into,
because that’s how people are?”
Albom went on to discuss the novel’s autobiographical
aspects.
“People always ask me, how much of this is
autobiographical? I don’t know why people always ask this of
a novelist. People even asked me that of “˜The Five People You
Meet in Heaven.’ But … a lot of the things that happened to
Charlie did happen to me,” he said.
The author hopes that his book will inspire people to take
advantage of the time they still have with loved ones and
family.
“I hope people read this book and are moved by it and they
go and make that phone call or go make that ride and make that
visit now, because for all of those people who said, “˜Oh if I
could only have one more day,’ a lot of those people had
them. They had plenty. They just didn’t take them,”
Albom said.