BRATTLEBORO — The Friends of Brooks Memorial Library are once again participating in World Book Night - an international event in which volunteers hand out thousands of free books in their communities.
This year's offerings are wonderful: authors as diverse as Agatha Christie, Joseph Heller, and Maria Semple; titles such as “The Dog Stars” and “The Tipping Point” and “Bridge to Terabithia.”
To participate, visit www.us.worldbooknight.org and complete the application process, choosing the titles you'd like to give away. The deadline to apply to give out books is Jan. 5, 2014. If you're selected as a “giver,” you'll be notified in mid-February.
Givers will be notified in April to come to Brooks Memorial Library, the WBN official distribution site for the Brattleboro area, to get their books.
World Book Night is an annual celebration dedicated to spreading the love of reading, person to person. Each year on April 23, the UNESCO International Day of the Book, and Shakespeare's birthday, tens of thousands of people in the U.S. go out into their communities and give a combined half-million free World Book Night paperbacks to light- and non-readers.
An independent panel of booksellers and librarians selects the books using lists curated by experts in the book-selling and library world. All of the information comes from external, independent sources. Additionally, each year, givers from the previous year's World Book Night nominate books for the panel to consider.
Books typically are offered at bus stops, shelters, soup kitchens, hospitals, schools, senior centers, and many other places in the community.
This event is made possible by World Book Night USA, which is backed by hundreds of libraries and bookstores that host receptions and serve as book pickup sites; publishing companies that produce free special editions of their books, and thousands of volunteers.