World Book Night celebrates reading with paperback handouts
By Bob Minzesheimer, USA TODAY
All are celebrating World Book Night. It's not quite the Super Bowl or Mardi Gras, but across the United States, 25,000 volunteers will distribute a total of 500,000 free paperback books Monday, April 23, 2012.
Modeled on a British program that began last year, World Book Night is "like an intellectual Halloween, only better," says novelist and essayist Anna Quindlen, the program's honorary chairwoman. "We're giving out books, not just Mars bars."
World Book Night is a bit of a misnomer. It's being celebrated only in the USA, Britain, Ireland and Germany, and some of the events in 5,800 American communities take place this afternoon. (In parts of Europe on Monday, it's also World Book Day, aimed at kids.)
Sponsored by a coalition of publishers, booksellers and librarians, World Book Night originally planned to find 50,000 volunteers to give away 1 million books in the USA. That was cut in half because of logistics and shipping costs, says Carl Lennertz, its director. "But a half-million is still great." (For those keeping score, the Brits, with about one-fifth the U.S. population, are giving away 1 million books.)
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