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News of World Book Night's launch has spread trepidation and pleasure across the newswires.
The Telegraph has welcomed the promotion, which will see one million books given away by volunteers on the night of 5th March 2011. The list of 25 titles was unveiled this morning and includes titles from Sarah Waters and David Mitchell.
Head of books on the newspaper Gaby Wood http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/8175817/A-thousand-and-one-Worl... target="_blank">wrote that the scheme "promises to be a national, simultaneous frenzy of book-loving".
She added, "At a time when libraries are being threatened with closure and the publishing industry is under threat, this spectacular yet simple mass gesture will have what [chairman, Canongate m.d. Jamie] Byng describes as 'an unquantifiable impact' on reading."
The BBC's arts correspondent Will Gompertz http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/willgompertz/2010/12/who_wants_t... target="_blank">blogged about the news, musing: "The sheer scale of the project makes it intriguing: 1,000,000 books with a retail value of £8,390,000 given away in one night. Add to that the mass participation of the public and the ambition to roll the idea out across the rest of the world over the coming years and it starts to look epic."
While comments on the Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/dec/02/world-book-night-1m-free-books" target="_blank">site include drabacus' complaint: "Not sure what the logic is behind this. There are plenty of books in existence already. Indeed, many wonderful books are just destined for landfill just because they are not a new edition with an up-to-date cover. We should be encouraging people to read the books there are not printing new ones to give away."
While SV5H1 adds: "Lot of negativity here - I think it's a fantastic idea. And as a big fan of Margaret Atwood I don't think you can complain about the choice available."
Wood added that "[Byng's] entire life appears to be an attempt to prove that nothing is as infectious as enthusiasm. World Book Night is a wildly ambitious extension of that theory."