World Book Night!

As some of you may have heard, yesterday was World Book Night! We were very excited to be a part of this annual book-giving event. If you haven't heard of it, here is an explanation from the World Book Night website:

Each year, 30 books are chosen by an independent panel of librarians and booksellers. The authors of the books waive their royalties and the publishers agree to pay the costs of producing the specially-printed World Book Night U.S. editions. Bookstores and libraries sign up to be community host locations for the volunteer book givers.  

After the book titles are announced, members of the public apply to personally hand out 20 copies of a particular title in their community. World Book Night U.S. vets the applications, and the givers are chosen based on their ability to reach light and non-readers. The selected givers choose a local participating bookstore or library from which to pick up the 20 copies of their book, and World Book Night U.S. delivers the books to these host locations. 

Givers pick up their books in the week before World Book Night.  On April 23rd, they give their books to those who don’t regularly read and/or people who don’t normally have access to printed books, for reasons of means or access.

For the second year in a row, the library has been proud to be among the book givers out in the community. We received boxes and boxes of books from the World Book Night organization!

Prepping the books before heading out!

Both at Prairie Lakes Community Center and the local Metra Station, volunteers from several departments here at the library braved the cold and rain to share over 100 books with light and non-readers. Since the rain delayed our plans for other, outdoor locations, we'll be out there again soon with more books. On another day when the sun is out, we'll be giving out books to folks who least expect it, and passing on the joy of reading.

And, if you got a book from us at one of those locations and would like to tell us you loved it (or hated it, we still want to know), come see us at the 3rd floor! We love making suggestions for what to read next. Spreading the love of reading is what we do best, and everyone who participated in this event gave their time and effort to do exactly that. Thanks to everyone who was out there with me passing out books, and everyone who took one!