World Book Night U.S. is a celebration of books and reading held on April 23, when 25,000 passionate volunteers across America give a total of half a million books within their communities to those who don’t regularly read. In 2012, World Book Night was celebrated in the U.S., the UK, Ireland, and Germany and saw over 80,000 people gift more than 2.5 million books.Basically, this is an initiative to encourage people to read by giving them a FREE book! Think of how you fell in love with books, reading, the smell of paper (oh wait ... is that just me?). For me, my mom and dad read to me all. the. time. Literally. And once I could read for myself, I just kept doing it.
But everyone doesn't grow up in a home where books are readily available or moms and dads have time to read to their kids or where the grown-ups even know how to read. Hence, the need for World Book Night.
So, how does this work? Well, you can read all about it here. But the quick summary is that ...
- Thirty books are chosen to be distributed.
- Authors and publishers work together to cut printing/publishing costs as much as possible (Authors even donate their royalties!)
- People apply to be givers.
- Givers receive 20 copies of one book from the list and on World Book Night distribute in a location in their community where they are likely to encounter people who may not already be readers.
Have you ever heard of or participated in World Book Night? Are you applying to be a giver? If so, which books do you hope to give out? Where in your community will you give them out?
