World Book Night!

If you're following this blog, you know that my first true love is reading. Don't let my office space fool you - it's library first, workplace second. I love the feel of a book in my hands, I love snuggling in for a good story, and I mostly love sharing a great book with friends.

I love to share books so much that I even had a stamp made.

I follow a bunch of book bloggers and bookish things on twitter, so when I saw a tweet about #WorldBookNight, "spreading the love of reading, person to person" I had to read more. You can too - http://www.us.worldbooknight.org/

The idea is awesome. Basically, people write a short essay for where and why they would give away free books to non-readers. They select from a list of 30 available books, and if they are selected to be a giver, new pristine (FREE) copies of the books are sent to the giver's local bookstore to be handed out on UNESCO's World Book Day - April, 23rd. (In case you're curious, 4/23 is the date of Shakespeare's birth and death, and Cervante's death.)

I have 20 new pristine copies of the Book Thief. *Squeal*

The really cool part is that the 30 books selected this year were not your typical snorefests classics.  I've read about half of the books on the list, and I can tell you that they were all 4 star+ books. Some examples:
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
- Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
- Little Bee by Chris Cleave
- The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
- The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
- The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
- The History of Love by Nicole Krauss 
- The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
*And the one I requested and was selected to hand out - The Book Thief by Mark Zusak*

I can't wait to give these books to the Child Crisis Center here on World Book Night. I think the coolest part of the whole thing is that these books were printed specifically for the event, so they have a very special message of the front cover:

I love the line "No one finishes a book the same person as when they started, whether filled with a new understanding of life or just happier for the hours lost in a good story" - what a great way for a non-reader to be introduced to the love!

Also, let it be noted that they didn't cheap out on this. The Reader's Guide is there, a conversation with the author, recommendations for other similar titles - it's a quality paperback book. I know that World Book Night will be a huge success, and I'm looking forward to many years of sharing the love of reading!