World Book Day

Ever since I started working in the book trade, far too many years ago to count, I have been a fan of World Book Day. I thought it was odd that we in the UK celebrated it on the 1st Thursday in March when the rest of the world did so on April 23rd but never mind - free books for children that's all that mattered.

This year the scheme has changed slightly and grown ups can get involved, and get free books too.

25 titles have been chosen by various people and then during the first week of March 40 000 copies of each book will be given away free. More details can be found on the official website but the 25 books are:

• A Fine Balance by Rohintan Mistry
• A Life Like Other People's - Alan Bennett
• Operation Mincemeat - Ben Macintyre
• All Quiet on the Western Front - Eric Maria Remarque
• Beloved - Toni Morrison
• Case Histories - Kate Atkinson
• Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
• Dissolution - C J Sansom
• Fingersmith - Sarah Waters
• Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• Killing Floor - Lee Child
• Life of Pi - Yann Martel
• Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• Northern Lights - Philip Pullman
• One Day - David Nicholls
• Rachel's Holiday - Marian Keyes
• New Selected Poems - Seamus Heaney
• Stuart: A Life Backwards - Alexander Masters
• The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood
• Curios Incident of the Dog in the Night Time - Mark Haddon
• The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Muriel Spark
• The Reluctant Fundamentalist - Mohsin Hamid
• The Spy Who Came in from the Cold - John le Carre
• The World's Wife - Carol Ann Duffy
• Toast - Nigel Slater

Now I've read quite a few of these already but I've set myself the challenge to read or re-read all of these books before March 5th 2011 and to blog about them. AS I work in the library I can read all f these books for free already so that won't hinder progress, but I feel I will have to start with the poetry as those two titles will probably be my biggest challenge

I'm not usually very good when I 'have' to read a book but as this is a task I have set myself I will probably be OK.

I also have to decide which book I am going to apply for to give away...now where did I put my copy of the Northern Lights?