WINNEMUCCA - Three local women with a strong love of reading have been chosen to spread the love of reading through "World Book Night" Tuesday, April 23.
World Book Night is an annual celebration dedicated to spreading the love of reading each year on April 23. Tens of thousands of people in the U.S. go out into their communities and give a total of half a million free World Book Night paperbacks to light and non-readers.
Debbie Stone, Robin Paul Woolever and Gene Pfarr applied to be World Book Night distributors, and are very excited to be involved.
The books given each year are chosen by a panel of booksellers and librarians, and givers from the pervious year's World Book Night nominate books for the panel to consider.
April 23 is the night because it is the United Nations International Day of the Book as well as Shakespeare's birthday.
There are many programs to get books to young children, but World Book Night fills another important need: encouraging reading in the adult population.
Last year was the first year the U.S. was involved in World Book Night, which started in the United Kingdom just two years ago. U.S. books are specially produced, not-for-resale paperbacks. Debbie Stone and her friends will each receive 20 copies of a book they've chosen from the list of 30 World Book Night U.S. selections.
The books are free. Authors have foregone their royalties and donations from publishers, libraries, booksellers, and an enormous list of other businesses and organizations make the distribution of books possible.
Stone, Woolever and Pfarr plan to download art from the organization's website and print bookmarks to go into each of the free books, so recipients will know some background on World Book Night.
Debbie Stone, an avid Facebook writer, plans to write about their involvement in World Book Night before, during and after. Stone will be driving to Elko to pick up the books she and her friends will distribute.
The friends already share their love of reading with others by belonging to several book clubs; now they'll try to encourage those who maybe don't regularly read to enjoy a great book.
Stone has loved reading ever since she can remember. Woolever said her mom bought books and read books regularly. "My family just read," she said.
Pfarr remembers that growing up it was a big treat to go to the library with her mom and three siblings. "It was a nice way to escape."
The book Stone will be distributing is "Mud Bound" by Hillary Jordan. She describes it as a really good story set in the late 1940s in Mississippi that explores several racial topics. Stone said, "It's well written and the characters stay with you."
Woolever will be giving away copies of "Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life" by famous mystery writer James Patterson. She said it's about a boy's adventures and misadventures navigating through the challenging middle school years.
She said, "He decides to make his mark by breaking every rule in the book." She added there are some great illustrations that add to the book's humor. This book was a winner of the "Reluctant Young Readers Award."
Pfarr's book will be "Favorite American Poems" edited by Paul Negri. The collection's 200 poems are each preceded by one or more testimonials from people who've loved the poems and why.
U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky hoped to persuade 100 Americans to recite and tell why the loved a piece of poetry. He was surprised by an overwhelming response, and the best were chosen to accompany the poems in this compilation.
Additional information on World Book Night is available on the organization's website, www.worldbooknight.org. The website has accounts by those who distributed books a prior World Book Nights, and all three Winnemucca women say they plan to write about their experience as well.
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