• RELATED STORIES

• Axe joins Aurum

  Aurum has appointed Jessica...

• Tax protest disrupts Amazon shareholders meeting

  A protest demonstration has...

• Mulholland Books acquires Max Barry

  Mulholland Books has acquir...

• C&R partners with du Beke for ballroom title

  Constable & Robinson ha...

• More Doctor Who for BBC Books

  BBC Books has acquired a fu...

Germany joins World Book Night

17.01.12 | Charlotte Williams

World Book Night is continuing its international spread, with Germany now set to join the UK and US in staging a one million book giveaway on 23rd April 2012.

The German World Book Night will be carried out in association with the Friends of Reading campaign, which is launching in Germany as part of the German World Book Day. The event will be a joint initiative between Germany's Reading Foundation (Stiftung Lesen), The Association of German Publishers and Booksellers (Boersenverein des Deutschen Buhhandels), and individual German publishers, in partnership with World Book Night. 

WBN celebrations will take place at the Festival of Friends of Reading in Hamburg. Organisers will stage a public reading event with "noted authors, actors, artists, journalists, athletes, and musicians". 

WBN founder Jamie Byng said: "It was always our dream to see World Book Night happen all over the world and having it as part of Weltag des Buches (World Book Day) and in such an important country is tremendously exciting. We hope it is an enormous success and that it achieves its aim of getting more people to read and share their passion for great books.

"And the prospect of three million books being given away in this dynamic and pro-active way is wonderful." 

The German campaign will target 33,333 book givers who will select one of a list of 25 titles and will then be responsible for giving away 30 copies of that title to members of the public, following the UK format. 

Among the 25 German language titles to be given away are Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Nick Hornby's About a Boy, Irene Nemirovsky's Suite Francaise, Daniel Kehlmann's Measuring the World, Robert Harris' The Ghost, Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose and Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. 

Professor Dr Gottfried Honnefelder, head of The Association of German Publishers and Booksellers, said: "Twenty publishing companies are joining together to spread a passion for reading. World Book Day has for many years been a celebration of reading. With the Friends of Reading campaign, we're expanding the scope of our engagement in order to make clear that reading is a fundamental and enriching part of life." 

• Charlotte Williams
• Germany
• Home
• Jamie Byng
• World Book Night