Novel idea to give away free books

A TOTAL of 25,000 free copies of Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped are to be distributed throughout Edinburgh next month.

The books will be handed out free to everyone from coffee shops to schools and libraries in a bid to get as many people as possible reading the same book at the same time.

Organisers of the campaign today announced the number of free books being handed out has been increased from 15,000 to 25,000.

Edinburgh's first citywide reading campaign, One Book - One Edinburgh, is a unique project created by the team who made the Capital the world's first UNESCO City of Literature.

Three new editions of Stevenson's great adventure story have been created - a paperback, a new graphic novel and a simplified version. Of the 25,000, there will be 10,000 copies of the original text with a preface by author Louise Welsh.

There will also be 7500 copies of a graphic novel by internationally renowned comic book artists, author Alan Grant and illustrator Cam Kennedy, who between them have created classics of the genre such as Judge Dredd and Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight

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