Are you ready for World Book Day? It will be upon us this Tuesday, 23 April 2019. This special day was officially proclaimed in 1995 by UNESCO, The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and is celebrated by over 100 countries on that day. Except that the UK celebrates it on the first Thursday in March, apparently to avoid conflicts with Easter and school holidays.
According to the UNESCO web page, the full name is World Book and Copyright Day, and many festivities are planned all around the world. In addition, a World Book Capital is named each year, and that city promotes literacy throughout the year until April 23rd of the next year. Sharjah, a United Arab Emirates city on the Arabian Gulf, is the World Book Capital for 2019.
23 April is a symbolic date for world literature. It is on this date in 1616 that Cervantes, Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega all died. It is also the date of birth or death of other prominent authors, such as Maurice Druon, Halldór K. Laxness, Vladimir Nabokov, Josep Pla and Manuel Mejía Vallejo.
- UN web page
I'm all for promoting books, reading, and literacy; they have always been a big part of my life. What makes me especially happy is that Amazon.com is celebrating by offering 9 Kindle books for free! The 6 novels, 1 biography, and 1 true crime book have all been translated into English, and come from a wide variety of languages. In addition the books are by authors who are prize winners or best sellers in their native countries. Such a good chance to peek into another culture. I am looking forward to reading most of these books, and applying them to the Reading All Around the World Challenge!
But hurry, these books are only free until 11:59 PM [Pacific Daylight Time] on Wednesday night. The time remaining is shown at the top of the download page, so check it in your local time zone. Here's the page on Amazon.com to get your free ebooks:
Further Reading
* UN: World Book and Copyright Day 23 April
http://www.un.org/en/events/bookday/
* UNESCO: World Book Day
https://en.unesco.org/commemorations/worldbookday
* World Book Day - a British site for their day, 7 March 2019
https://www.worldbookday.com/
In the past, books were handed out across America on World Book Day. But that hasn't been done in a couple of years now. I wish someone would revive it. It was a fun day.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know about that. It sounds like a wonderful idea. In the Netherlands they commission a special novel each year and hand it out. This year you got to ride the trains free if you showed your copy of that book. How cool is that!
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