insideKENT Magazine Issue 49 - April 2016 | Page 19

ARTS+ENTERTAINMENT

World Book Night
23 April 2016

Reading: isn’t it wonderful? Isn’t it strange? Isn’t it incredible how we can stare
at a piece of paper covered with black markings and create some kind of a
new world within our heads? It’s remarkable, magical, and the charity The
Reading Agency wants everyone to experience it.
Let us introduce World Book Night – an annual
event held on 23rd April (which is the UNESCO
International Day of the Book, as well as being
Shakespeare’s birthday) – aiming to show
people that reading for pleasure can have
some truly beneficial effects.
Did you know, for example, that reading can
reduce stress levels by 68%? And that book
readers generally have a more satisfied outlook
on life? Or that parents are their children’s first
and most important reading role model?
On World Book Night, hundreds of volunteers
are given books – different books each year
– and their task is to give them away to those
who might not normally sit down with a good
story, or those who might not own many
books. It’s a chance for these volunteers to
share their love of reading, and a chance for
the lucky ones who are chosen to receive new
books to experience what it’s like to delve into
the pages for the first time.
Each volunteer will be sent 16 copies of the
book they’ve been allocated, and it’s down
to them to decide who – and how – to give
the copies away. Perhaps they will walk down

the road and spot likely looking candidates.
Maybe they’ll hold a local event where they
will read some of the book and give copies
away there. The choices are almost endless.
As well as the book giveaway itself, there are
hundreds of other events taking place across
the UK and Ireland including author readings
in libraries, reading groups, and book
discussions. And it’s no longer just limited to
23rd April (although the initial giveaway is still
done on that night).
The books given away are special editions,
reprinted and bound with the official World
Book Night logo on them, so they’re fairly
limited and very distinct from any other copy
of the same book. They are chosen by an
expert editorial committee who meet up once
a year to consider all the possibilities – some
titles come to them through publishers’
submissions, some through national surveys,
and some through the committee’s own
reading lists. They can be newly published or
they can have been around for a while; as
long as the books will hopefully encourage a
long love of reading, they’re in with a chance
of being chosen.

www.worldbooknight.org

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The Books
For World Book Night 2016, the list of books being
given away is an impressive one, and includes 15
excellent reads. From neo-noir detectives to a satire
on the political movement in the 1970s to a good old
dollop of black humour, non-readers will be able to
dive straight into each of these novels and let the
stories whisk them away.
Whispering Shadows by Jan-Philipp Sendker
Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig
Too Good To Be True by Ann Cleeves
The Rotters’ Club by Jonathan Coe
Am I Normal Yet? by Holly Bourne
Someone Else’s Skin by Sarah Hillary
Perfect Daughter by Amanda Prowse
Now You See Me by Sharon Bolton
Band of Brothers by Stephen E. Ambrose
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
Treachery by S.J. Parris
Love Poems by Carol Ann Duffy
I Can’t Begin To Tell You by Elizabeth Buchan
Last Bus to Coffeeville by J. Paul Henderson
A Baby at the Beach Café by Lucy Diamond