Today is World Book and Copyright Day, as celebrated by UNESCO (United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization).
You can check out its history here, but the day “seeks to promote reading, publishing and the protection of intellectual property through copyright,” according to UNESCO.
Tonight is also World Book Night (unrelated to UNESCO), where volunteers will hand out free paperback books in the United States and United Kingdom. The 30 books include The Hunger Games, The Kite Runner and The Book Thief.
As an avid reader and a public library employee, I have one thing to say: Sounds good to me.
UNESCO has chosen the theme of Book Day to be on translation, as it’s the 80th anniversary of the the Index Translatonium, the U.N.’s translation database. But this is a boring theme for children. Why not science-fiction or graphic novels?
So I’m just going to skip this theme altogether and use this as my soapbox to talk about books and reading!
Some thoughts:
1.) Graphic novels have caught my eye recently. I use Marvel’s iPad app to check out free Marvel comics (like The Avengers and X-Men).
2.) I just read House of M: The Avengers, about an alternate reality where evil mutants have taken over the Earth and regular humans are being enslaved. A small group of New York humans team up to protect their ‘hood.
3.) So now I am reading X-Men: Age of X, which I guess is another alternate reality where humans are fighting off the mutants, so the mutants (with Magneto at the helm) build a fortress.
Best part of the comic: Magneto hurling Chicago skyscrapers at his enemies as if they’re footballs.
So where am I going with this?
Oh yeah, you should read a book! Why? To exercise your imagination.
So here’s a list of easy books to read:
1. A young adult book– The Hunger Games, Harry Potter, The Giver
2. A comic book– The Avengers, X-Men or Spider Man
3. A fantasy book– The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Giver
4. A myster/thriller– by Tom Clancy or James Patterson
5. A history book– World War II, Civil War, Civil Rights Movement
6. A classic book– by Charles Dickens or Jane Austen
tworden 