Today we celebrate World Book Night (website | Twitter | Facebook) where readers around the world will celebrate their love or the written word by handing out free copies. Thousands of cities and towns around the world will be participating in the second annual World Book Night where the expected number of books to be donated reached 2.5 million.
The event, first conceived by Jamie Byng, Managing Director of Canongate Books in Edinburgh, Scotland. This year though would be the first time US readers will participate along with Germany, Ireland and the UK of course. The date, April 23, was not incidental as it marks both the death of Miguel de Cervantes and the birth of William Shakespeare.
The goal, in the United States, is to give out half a million books to those who ordinarily wouldn’t have bought them. Designated givers, 25,000 in the United States, will give out brand new paperback books specially printed for the event. Among the 30 titles available are The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, The Stand by Stephen King, A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, The Book Thief by Maruus Zusak, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Locks by Rebecca Skloot and The Brief Wondrous life of Oscar Wu by Junot Diaz among others.
3 Comments
I was a volunteer here on Long Island, and I handed out twenty copies of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot.
It was very fun.
Great work Peter. Maybe next year I’ll get to participate as well.
This is an event I would love to participate in. Alas, living in Taiwan, I would only generate furrowed brows and strange stares.