One Million Books To Be Given Away For World Book Night

Two Acton book lovers will be part of group 20,000 people giving away free books this weekend

A million books are expected to be given away this weekend, to mark the first ever World Book Night, and two of the givers will be on hand in Acton.  

This dynamic and unprecedented industry-wide initiative to celebrate adult books and reading will see one million free books given away on World Book Night by 20,000 passionate readers to other members of the public across the UK and Ireland. World Book Night will take place two days after World Book Day, the established nationwide reading campaign.

Active ActonW3.com forum contributor Sara Nathan will be at the Acton Market this Saturday to give away 48 copies of 'Stuart: A Life Backwards' by Alexander Masters. Sara will at be the Churchfield Community Association's monthly stall on The Mount from 10am.

Elsewhere, Lena Inger has decided to handpick her 48 lucky recipients of Seamus Heaney's New Selected Poems. Ms. Inger says she chose Heaney's book to give away because she's Irish herself and is hugely proud of her countryman.  

"I chose Seamus Heaney's work because it is very accessible.  It has given me enormous pleasure over the years, and I would like to share that.   I love the fact that my small country has produced so many world-class writers.

I was asked by the organisers to say to whom I would be giving the books, and I said,  "to people with very busy lives, that is - people who find it difficult to make time to read, but who would enjoy a book they could easily dip in and out of.   Also, I think it might encourage people who don't normally read poetry to give it a try."  

A growing list of high-profile figures from publishing, media and the arts are lending their support to this ambitious initiative by becoming Patrons of World Book Night including Damon Albarn, Dave Eggers, Colin Firth, David Gilmour, Antony Gormley, Seamus Heaney, Damien Hirst, Nigella Lawson, Mary Portas, J.K. Rowling and Tilda Swinton.

Jamie Byng, Chairman, World Book Night says “World Book Night is a unique collaboration between publishers, booksellers, libraries, writers and individual members of the public and one that I think is going to have an enormously positive impact on books and reading. There are few things more meaningful than the personal recommendation and having one million books given to one million different people on one night in this way is both unprecedented and hugely exciting.”