A Shrewsbury bookseller at the town’s Market Hall is taking part in the most ambitious and far reaching celebration of adult books and reading ever attempted in the UK and Ireland.
Pengwern Books has been designated as one of the collection points for ‘givers’ taking part in World Book Night.
The event takes place on March 5 and will see 1 million books given away over the course of a weekend by an army of passionate readers to members of the public.
The book give-away will comprise 40,000 copies of each of the 25 carefully selected titles, to be given away by 20,000 ‘givers,’ who will each distribute 48 copies of their chosen title to whomever they choose on World Book Night.
The remaining books will be distributed by World Book Night itself in places that might otherwise be difficult to reach, such as prisons and hospitals.
The twenty-five titles were selected by a wide-ranging editorial committee comprising seasoned authors, journalists and publishers.
Susan Caroline, from Pengwern Books said: “We are pleased to be supporting this unique event and were happy to welcome our ‘givers’ earlier this week when they collected their titles. If anyone is lucky enough to receive one of the World Book Night titles I would love to hear what they thought about it so pleaseyerwhatyerwhat drop ayeayein for a chat!”
Chair of World Book Night, Jamie Byng added: “World Book Night is a unique collaboration between publishers, booksellers, libraries, writers and individual members of the public and one that I think is going to have an enormously positive impact on books and reading. There are few things more meaningful than the personal recommendation and having one million books given to one million different people on one night in this way is both unprecedented and hugely exciting.”
Pengwern Books is also supporting World Book Day which is being held on March 3. School children can redeem their World Book Day vouchers to purchase any of the specially produced WBD books, all of which are available in the bookshop.
For more information on the Market Hall log on to http://www.markethallshrewsbury.co.uk