World Book Night Comes to Lawton

On April 23, 2012, several Lawtonians will join tens of thousands of people in the United States, as well as the United Kingdom and Ireland, in giving out free paperback books, courtesy of World Book Night USA, to spread the joy and love of reading.  Volunteers have signed up online on the WBN site to distribute books on April 23 in the Lawton area to those who don’t read much, or who don’t readily have access to books.

The WBN sign-up process required volunteers to choose a book from a list of 30 available titles, state their purpose in participating in WBN, and  declare their plan for distributing books.  WBN books are specially-produced, not-for-resale paperbacks. Book givers will receive 20 copies of the same book, a book they love from the list of 30 picks. The free books will be shipped to a local distribution point, in this case the Lawton Public Library, where volunteers will pick them up.

The library will host a Pick-Up Party for participants to collect their books and discuss their plans for distributing.  Date and time for the Pick-Up Party will be announced after the library has been informed of the anticipated delivery date by WBN early in April.

There is no charge for these special, not-for-resale editions, not for the library, the book giver, or the recipient. These books cannot be resold in any fashion.  Authors are foregoing royalties to make this possible, and American book publishers, the American Booksellers Association, Barnes and Noble, the American Library Association, the Association of American Publishers, Ingram Book Company, UPS, and a dozen printers and binders have paid for the production and shipping.

WBN is primarily intended to be promoted on a person-to-person basis in the volunteer’s community. The book givers are the reading ambassadors, spreading the word locally in thousands of individual interactions and celebrations of reading and giving that day.  The WBN organization encourages the givers themselves to use social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, to communicate their excitement about being able to give away free books, to tell about their plans for distributing the books, and to describe how their day went, as well as share photos if possible.

WBN originated in the U.K. in 2011.  WBN USA joined the U.K. movement this year;  the WBN organization hopes to spread to more countries in future years.

WBN is an offshoot of World Book and Copyright Day, long celebrated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO, on April 23, to promote reading, publishing and the protection of intellectual property through copyright. The date of April 23 was chosen because it is the acknowledged date on which, in the same year of 1616, Miguel Cervantes and William Shakespeare died.  April 23 is also Shakespeare’s birthday, and the date of birth or death of other prominent authors such as Inca Garilaso de la Vega, Maurice Druon, Vladimir Nabokov, Josep Pla, and Manuel Mejía Vallejo.    UNESCO's General Conference pay world-wide tribute to books and authors on this date, encouraging everyone, and in particular young people, to discover the pleasure of reading and gain a renewed respect for the irreplaceable contributions of those who have furthered the social and cultural progress of humanity.

More information about World Book Night in the United States may be found at http://www.us.worldbooknight.org, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/worldbooknightusa, or on Twitter at @wbnamerica