World Book Night: Spreading the joy and love of reading

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Libraries are helping to spread the joy and love of reading by taking part in World Book Night on April 23.

Held in the United States, as well as the U.K. and Ireland, the initiative aims at promote the value of reading, of printed books and of bookstores and libraries to everyone year-round.

The goal of World Book Night is to seek out reluctant adult readers wherever they are, in towns and cities, in public settings or in places from nursing homes to food pantries, low income schools to mass transit.

Tens of thousands of volunteers will hand out copies of 30 specially chosen and printed World Book Night editions in their communities. The volunteers will visit safe, well-populated public areas or indoor settings.

One of the libraries serving as a distribution point will be the Mary Vinson Memorial Library in Milledgeville, Ga., part of the Twin Lakes Library System.

On the Twin Lakes system's blog, Lois Callender writes, "As my kids get older and start to read books, I find myself wanting to share with them the books I loved while growing up. ‘Amelia Bedelia,’ ‘Encyclopedia Brown,’ ‘ Little House on the Prairie’ and many, many more number among the titles I am eager for them to experience. In fact, there are so many that I often have to reign myself in, not exposing them to subjects and themes above their level.

"But my desire to share books, and therefore ideas and experiences which are important to me, is not limited to my children. Friends and family (and now patrons!) have been inundated with book suggestions almost every time I read something new. Yes, there are times I have read a dud and wondered what possessed me to pick up a certain title, but most of the time I read with eager anticipation to find out how the heroine/hero saves the day. And I want others to experience that same joy of anticipation."

World Book Night U.S. is a nonprofit organization and applying for tax-exempt status as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, supported by American book publishers, the American Booksellers Association, Barnes & Noble, the American Library Association, the Association of American Publishers, and Ingram Book Distributors.

Successfully launched in the U.K. in 2011, World Book Night will also be celebrated in the U.S. in 2012, with news of more countries to come in future years.

April 23 is UNESCO’s (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) World Book Day, chosen due to the anniversary of Cervantes’ death, as well as Shakespeare’s birth and death.