World Book Night

World Book Night 2012 will take place on Monday 23rd April.

A celebration designed to share the love of reading books, the evening of 23rd April, 2012 will see tens of thousands of people gift books within their communities, at special book giving parties, on tube trains and in local hospitals to spread the joy and love of reading. This year, World Book Night will be held simultaneously in both the UK and in the US, with the US confirmed as the event’s first international partner.

The 25 World Book Night titles to be given away this year were announced on 24th October. Selected from a list of Top 100 favourite books as voted for the public they are:

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Player of Games by Iain M Banks
Sleepyhead by Mark Billingham
Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
The Take by Martina Cole
Harlequin by Bernard Cornwell
Someone Like You by Roald Dahl
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Room by Emma Donoghue
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Misery by Stephen King
The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella
Small Island by Andrea Levy
Let the Right One In by John Ajvde Lindqvist
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell
The Damned Utd by David Peace
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman
How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
Touching the Void by Joe Simpson
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak 

The first World Book Night was launched on Friday 4th March 2011 in London's Trafalgar Square. The special event saw numerous celebrated authors including John Le Carré, Margaret Atwood, Alan Bennett, David Nicholls, Edna O'Brien and Philip Pulman, give readings and take part in book giving events to members of the public across the UK. Over 1 million books were distributed for free on the night by 20,000 book givers and organisations across the weekend. See the behind the scenes photos of World Book Night 2011 by clicking on the 'Gallery' tab on the top of the page.

Photos by World Book Night and Jonny Geller.

You can learn more about World Book Night and register to be a book give at www.worldbooknight.org.