APRIL 9, 2014
Who is helping give out half a million free books across America on April 23rd? We are.
Spreading the Love of Reading. Person to Person.
On April 23, 2014, 25,000 volunteers from Kodiak to Key West will give away half a million free books in more than 6,000 towns and cities across America.
World Book Night U.S. is an ambitious campaign to give thousands of free, specially-printed paperbacks to light or non-readers. Volunteer book lovers like us will help promote reading by going into our communities and handing out free copies of a book we love, often to those without means or access to a printed book. With the organizational support of local bookstores and libraries, we’ll be sharing them in locations such as hospitals, mass transit, nursing homes, food pantries, underfunded schools and more.
Our group is very proud to be World Book Night givers. On April 23, 2014, we will be handing out books to light or non-readers at The Greyhound station downtown at 2115 E Buckeye Rd. Phoenix, AZ and in the courthouse area downtown at the park between Justice Court Administration building on 125 W Washington St. Phoenix, AZ.
As the group coordinator, I would be happy to speak with you about our experiences.
• This is not a random giveaway. We will ask people if they are readers first. If they are avid readers already, these free editions are not for them. Avid readers are asked to participate next year as a giver by signing up for the WBN e-newsletter for World Book Night 2015.
• World Book Night is making a short, free original e-book available to everyone at their website on April 23.
• All information, including FAQs, at www.us.worldbooknight.org
World Book Night takes place on April 23, 2014 – Shakespeare’s birthday – and is in its third year in the U.S., after the UK launch in 2011.
As part of World Book Night, 2,300 bookstores and libraries serve as community organizers for the book distribution to the volunteer givers. WBN’s reach includes all 50 states, Puerto Rico, USVI, and overseas military bases.
The WBN picks are by a wide array of award-winning and bestselling adult and YA authors, as well as classics, books in Spanish, and books in Large Print. The assortment of 39 WBN titles is based on diversity in subject matter, age level, gender, ethnicity and geography. The books were chosen in a vote by booksellers, librarians, and givers.
Bestselling author Scott Turow said: "I can't imagine any greater compliment to a book – or an author – than to know his work been selected to welcome people to the pleasures of reading."
Volunteers applied online to be givers by stating where they intend to seek out book recipients, and noting which of the special WBN Book Picks they’d like to hand out.
The volunteer givers come from all walks of life: teachers, book club members, social workers, first responders, local businesspeople, librarians, booksellers, students, parents, and more.
Of note: It is too late to volunteer to be a giver this year, but anyone can join the WBN mailing list in order to be notified when giver application process begins anew in the fall for 2015.
The World Book Night U.S. titles for 2014, alphabetical by author, are:
The Zookeeper’s Wife, Diane Ackerman (W.W. Norton)
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, Jesse Andrews (Amulet)
Zora and Me, Victoria Bond and T.S. Simon (Candlewick)
Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain (Ecco)
The Weird Sisters, Eleanor Brown (Berkley)
The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky (Simon & Schuster)
After the Funeral, Agatha Christie (William Morrow Paperbacks)
The Ruins of Gorlan: Ranger’s Apprentice Book 1, John Flanagan (Puffin Books)
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Jamie Ford (Ballantine Books)
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet in Large Print (Thorndike/Gale; Cengage Learning)
The Lighthouse Road, Peter Geye (Unbridled Books)
The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell (Back Bay Books)
Wait Till Next Year, Doris Kearns Goodwin (Simon & Schuster)
Catch-22, Joseph Heller (Simon & Schuster)
The Dog Stars, Peter Heller (Vintage)
Hoot, Carl Hiaasen (Knopf)
Pontoon: A Novel of Lake Wobegon, Garrison Keillor (Penguin Books)
Same Difference, Derek Kirk Kim (First Second Books)
Enchanted, Alethea Kontis (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Miss Darcy Falls in Love, Sharon Lathan (Sourcebooks)
Bobcat and Other Stories, Rebecca Lee (Algonquin Books)
Young Men and Fire, Norman Maclean (University of Chicago Press)
Waiting to Exhale, Terry McMillan (New American Library)
Tales of the City, Armistead Maupin (HarperPerennial)
Sunrise Over Fallujah, Walter Dean Myers (Scholastic)
Twelve Years a Slave, Solomon Northup (Dover)
Bridge to Terabithia, Katherine Paterson (HarperTrophy)
The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan (Random House)
The Raven’s Warrior, Vincent Pratchett (YMAA Books)
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs (Quirk Books)
When I Was Puerto Rican, Esmeralda Santiago (Da Capo)
Cuando era puertorriqueña, Esmeralda Santiago (Vintage Español)
Where’d You Go, Bernadette, Maria Semple (Back Bay Books)
Where’d You Go, Bernadette in Large Print (Thorndike/Gale; Cengage Learning)
Wild, Cheryl Strayed (Vintage)
Presumed Innocent, Scott Turow (Grand Central Publishing)
Code Name Verity, Elizabeth Wein (Disney Hyperion)
This Boy’s Life, Tobias Wolff (Grove Atlantic)
100 Best-Loved Poems, Philip Smith, ed. (Dover)
World Book Night U.S. is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization supported by UPS, authors, publishers, the American Booksellers Association, the American Library Association, Barnes & Noble, and the Ingram Content Group; a full list of sponsors is at our website.
FAQs, PHOTOS, VIDEOS, MAPS, AND TESTIMONIALS CAN BE VIEWED AT
www.us.worldbooknight.org https://www.facebook.com/worldbooknightusa https://twitter.com/wbnamerica http://pinterest.com/worldbooknight/ http://wbnamerica.tumblr.com/ Instagram: wbnamerica
