This Tuesday, April 23, is World Book Night.
World Book Night is an annual celebration dedicated to spreading the love of reading, person to person. Each year on April 23, tens of thousands of people in the US go out into their communities and give a total of half a million free World Book Night paperbacks.
World Book Night started in the UK and Ireland in 2011. It happens annually on Shakespeare’s birthday. The book-giving spread across the pond to the US and to Germany in 2012. Last year, almost 80,000 people gave out nearly 2.5 million free books on World Book Night.
This year, World Book Night US listed the top 10 cities and regions by number of books requested to give out per capita, and the #1 top giver region is West Seattle Sound (Bainbridge Island, Kitsap County, Olympic Peninsula). Hooray, Pacific Northwest readers! As World Book Night US Executive Director Carl Lennertz stated in the release of the top 10 givers list, these numbers indicate “very involved bookstores and libraries, as well as places with community-minded citizens.”
Pacific Northwest bookstores have facilitated giving in their community. Posts on facebook from Eagle Harbor Book Company, Liberty Bay Books, Vintage Books, and more have shown excited givers picking up their book boxes.
We’re very proud of all the World Book Night givers heading out Tuesday with their bags of books. Thank you for sharing the love of reading!
