Today’s the day that 25,000 volunteers across the United States will hand out 500,000 free paperback books (Ireland and Germany and Britain—where a million books will be handed out—are also participating). “It’s like an intellectual Halloween, only better,” Anna Quindlen, World Book Night’s honorary chairwoman, told USA Today. Also from the USA Today article, we learned that Sitka, AK’s Old Harbor Books’ Melissa Danville will ride along as local librarian Kari Sagel checks one thing off her librarian’s bucket list: “Every librarian’s secret dream is to drive a bookmobile.” The souped-up Old Harbor World Book Nightmobile is something more of a roving float, planning stops at bars and a hospital with a local band in tow.

We want to congratulate Northwest book-loving towns Hamilton, MT and Corvallis, OR for making the list of the top 25 book giver cities per capita. Indie stores Grass Roots Books & Music and Chapter One Book Store likely had a lot to do with those high numbers of givers. Chapter One has signed up 45 book givers to pass out titles such as Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and Patti Smith’s Just Kids (for a list of titles, go here). “Most book sellers are book lovers at heart, who have to figure out how to be salespeople to feed their passion,” Chapter One co-owner Mara Lynn Luther told The Missoulian. “This is a great way to focus solely on the books and not have to worry about making a bottom line.”

Keep an eye out in your town tonight.

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