World Book Night

Tonight marks the first annual World Book Night where 20,000 book lovers will give away 1 million books across the UK.

An inaugural ceremony was held last night in Trafalgar square, where registered book ‘givers’ got to listen to some of the world’s greatest authors supporting the cause. Philip Pullman, Margaret Atwood and John
Le Carré all read from their own books whilst Alan Bennett reopened the debate about public libraries by declaring ‘Closing libraries is child abuse’.

25 titles were chosen by an independent committee, with examples from every conceivable genre included in the final list, and each of the 20,000 ‘givers’ have been given 49 copies of their chosen title to share with the general public.

The World Book Night website is already filling up with reports from the ‘givers’ about how they distributed their allocation with all early indications suggesting that the scheme has been a great success.

The initiative has not escaped without criticism though, with some independent booksellers and authors suggesting that giving away books during a perceived crisis in the print industry only aided in devaluing books in their printed format. However, The Bookseller reports that sales of the 25 titles (which include Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time and Muriel Spark’s The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie) have received a boost in the first few months of 2011, seemingly due to the publicity surrounding World Book Night.

As part of their Year of Books, the BBC has devoted their scheduling tonight to World Book Night, including a look at the books ‘We Really Read’, starting at 7.30 tonight on BBC2. 

A full list of this year’s 25 titles can be found on the official website and if you missed out on taking part this year and would like to take part next year, information has already been posted so that you too can take part in the grandest literary event of 2012. For full details see worldbooknight.org

Were you a registered giver, or were you lucky enough to receive a free book? What do you think about World Book Night? Leave a comment and tell us about it.