World Book Night donates millions of free books
A man looks at books on April 2, 2012 in New York City.
NEW YORK — Thousands of towns and cities around the country and beyond participated in the second annual World Book Night on Monday, giving away some 2.5 million free books, the Associated Press reported.
Among the 30 books given out were Maya Angelou's "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," Suzanne Collins’ ”The Hunger Games,” Sherman Alexie’s “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” and Leif Enger’s “Peace Like a River.”
“It’s premium company, this list, and I’m glad and lucky to be on it,” Enger told the AP. “It also feels like a challenge. The idea is to entice people back into reading."
The Los Angeles Times said the idea behind World Book Night is that "devoted readers are great proselytizers" and each person is encouraged to give away 20 copies of a book they love to friends and strangers alike.
World Book Night was started last year by managing director Jamie Byng of Canongate Books, in Edinburgh, Scotland, wrote the AP, but this year readers in the US, UK, Ireland and Germany participated.
The group also reached out past the bookstore crowd.
For example, the AP reported copies of Ann Patchett’s “Bel Canto” were given out at a Denver church to a nearby magnet school for refugees and immigrants. In Santa Cruz, Calif., copies of Patti Smith’s “Just Kids” went to surfers at Monterey Bay in Ziploc bags.
“It’s like an intellectual Halloween, only better,” Anna Quindlen, the program’s honorary chairwoman told USA Today. “We’re giving out books, not just Mars bars.”
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