Roses And Literature Blossom: Random House And Direct Group Celebrate World Book Day

UNESCO World Book Day will be celebrated this coming Sunday as people in nations throughout the world share their love of books and their passion for reading. And as in past years, the Random House publishers and Direct Group clubs will contribute to the international event with numerous campaigns. 

World Book Day originated in Spain. Under the motto "A rose for love, a book for eternity," it has been a tradition for 80 years to give each other a book and a rose on April 23, St. George’s day, the people's saint. The date is also historic in other respects: it is the day the Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes died, and it is the supposed day of William Shakespeare's birth and death. These are reasons enough to transform the traditional Spanish holiday into an international World Book Day. For eleven years, April 23 has been used throughout the world to attract attention to books as a cultural virtue and to the cultural technique of reading. The campaigns, many of them rooted in the initiative of the Random House publishers and Direct Group book clubs, range from readings, book parties, author's nights and discussion round tables to literary rallies and fairy tale hours.

This Sunday, Barcelona will again turn into a huge open-air bookstore. People will take to the streets looking for books and roses. They are not only attracted by the fact that the fixed pricing laws are suspended on this day and books will be available at bargain prices, but famous authors, including Random House authors, will also be generating long lines at the sales stands at book signing events. All visitors are welcomed by a virtual rose on the new Catalan website of the Spanish book club Círuclo de Lectores, which will also be represented, as usual, at the sales stands.

In Germany, Verlagsgruppe Random House has been actively supporting World Book Day for the past ten years. The spotlight is on children and youth. "We consider the promotion of reading especially sensible in their case. Primary school children who have learned to read and are on the threshold of picking up a book on their own, have to be inspired to become enthusiastic about literature," explained Dorette Peters of Verlagsgruppe Random House. This year, too, Omnibus Verlag will publish the World Book Day title "Ich schenk Dir eine Geschichte" (I'm giving you a story). Quiz stations about the short story collection by renowned authors will await kids in 500 bookstores. 

Great Britain will celebrate World Book Day with many joint campaigns, each year on a larger scale. The initiative "Quicks Read," in which Random House was a main partner, was a new event in the United Kingdom, where World Book Day was celebrated on March 2 before the spring break. 12 titles, among them "The Thief" by Ruth Rendell, published by Arrow, were compiled to inspire a passion for reading and tearing down inhibitions about reading with their easy and understandable style.

The German Club has also already celebrated its big reading event for World Book Day. On April 2, famous actors and local celebrities read suspenseful, entertaining, historic, and contemplative texts from the literary world in fourteen different cities under the Club motto "Because I like to read".

World Book Day will be honored in the United States and Canada with readings and other literary events. In France, 370 bookstores will participate on Saturday in the "Journee mondiale du livre du droit d’autor." There, too, it has become a tradition to receive a rose with the purchase of a book.