Saturday, April 22, 2017

World Book Day - April 23

World Book Day is as described on the United Nations website:

23 April was first proclaimed as World Book and Copyright Day by UNESCO in 1995. The Day is celebrated by a growing number of partners and since its launch has shown itself to be a great opportunity for reflection and information on a significant theme.

It is observed by millions of people in over 100 countries, in hundreds of voluntary organizations, schools, public bodies, professional groups and private businesses. In this lengthy period, World Book and Copyright Day has won over a considerable number of people from every continent and all cultural backgrounds to the cause of books and copyright. It has enabled them to discover, make the most of and explore in greater depth a multitude of aspects of the publishing world: books as vectors of values and knowledge, and depositories of the intangible heritage; books as windows onto the diversity of cultures and as tools for dialogue; books as sources of material wealth and copyright-protected works of creative artists. All of these aspects have been the subject of numerous awareness-raising and promotional initiatives that have had a genuine impact. There must nevertheless be no let-up in these efforts.

Since 2000, World Book and Copyright Day has inspired another initiative of professional organizations which receives the assistance of UNESCO and backing from States: World Book Capital City. Each year a city is chosen which undertakes to maintain, through its own initiatives, the impetus of the Day’s celebrations until 23 April of the following year. Almost all the regions of the world, in turn, have already been involved in this process, which thus transforms the celebration of books and copyright into a recurrent activity, extending still further the geographical and cultural influence of books.

Over recent years, the World Day has shown that it can be a potent symbol for the launch of major support operations, in particular in Latin America and Africa.

Over the weekend, you can take advantage of reading the beginning chapters of new books for free from Penguin House Books, on their website.

Happy reading!

Current book count: 15  (Recently read: Wanderlove by Kirsten Hubbard)

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Libraries, bookstores, and more books, oh my!

Current count of books read for 2017: 13.

I am also in between several books, which is only hindered by me going out and buying more books. It is a cycle that will never end. :)

While it has been a while posting, I have been reading away the days and visiting bookstores and libraries, both familiar and new. For example, the historic Chicago library:
Harold Washington Library in Chicago

I also visited the new Amazon Bookstore that opened in my city. I was super excited for this to open, but disappointed when I finally visited during opening week. It is about the average size for a bookstore, as it does not only sell books, but also electronics, tea sets, and has a cafe inside. The books are impressively displayed, only the majority of them are not new books. I found quite a few books I read a few years ago, and could not find any new ones that I came in to buy. The plus side of this bookstore is that you can use your Amazon Prime membership to receive in-person discounts on items for sale. The downside is that it is not yet at that point of the store being able to provide you with a new book same day. (We can't all be New York!) Either way, I do recommend visiting at least once, as it is an experience in itself.

Amazon Bookstore - Electronics

Books, books, books!

Intriguing murals on the walls.

I will leave you with a couple quotes I found as noteworthy:
From: The Mark of the Tala by Jeffe Kennedy

From: Wanderlove by Kirsten Hubbard
Until next time!