World Book Night Announces Titles, Opens Sign-Up for Book Givers

Anna Quindlen Named National Chair

World Book Night U.S. has announced the 30 titles to be given away by 50,000 volunteer book lovers in its inaugural campaign to distribute one million free books across America all on one day — April 23, 2012. With this week’s title selection announcement, the registration process for those wishing to become volunteer book givers opens and continues through February 1, 2012, at www.us.worldbooknight.org.

Also announced today was the news that the honorary national chairperson for the event is Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and bestselling author Anna Quindlen. “The idea behind World Book Night is inspired, and as a writer and a reader I’m thrilled to be part of it,” said Quindlen.

World Book Night (WBN) U.S. Executive Director Carl Lennertz said, “We need 50,000 book givers to sign up by February 1, and I dearly hope that 5,000 of the 50,000 will be independent booksellers themselves, along with librarians and authors. The real engine behind the sign-up drive will be social media, and notably the audience that the indies have online. At www.us.worldbooknight.org is a tab labeled Information for Booksellers and Librarians and under that is both suggested tweet language, as well as, courtesy of the ABA, downloadable World Book Night logos, stickers, and bookmarks that can be stuck in books in January to encourage sign-up by customers.”

The 2012 WBN titles were chosen by a panel of independent booksellers, Barnes & Noble buyers, and librarians through several rounds of voting. Thirty-five thousand copies of each World Book Night title will be printed as special, not-for-resale paperbacks, totaling over a million copies to be distributed nationwide. Copies of several of the picks will be shipped directly to military bases, and there will be an outreach to prison libraries.

ABA CEO Oren Teicher said, “ABA is delighted to be actively participating in World Book Night. We see it as an extraordinary opportunity to focus the country’s attention on books and reading. We encourage ABA members to become involved as book givers, to urge customers to sign up as book givers, and to create displays of the WBN title selections.”

Teicher also noted that ABA has made resources available to help bookstores promote the April 23 event via the WBN website and in the Booksellers DIY on BookWeb.org and that a special presentation on World Book Night will be part of next month’s Winter Institute.

The 30 World Book Night U.S. titles for 2012, alphabetical by author, are:

• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 9780316013697
• Wintergirls, Laurie Halse Anderson, Speak/Penguin, 9780142415573
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou, Ballantine, 9780812980028
• Friday Night Lights, H.G. Bissinger, Da Capo/Perseus, 9780306809903
• Kindred, Octavia Butler, Beacon Press, 9780807083697
• Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card, Tor, 9780812550702
• Little Bee, Chris Cleave, S&S, 9781416589648
• The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins, Scholastic, 9780439023528
• Blood Work, Michael Connelly, Grand Central, 9780446602624
• The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz, Riverhead, 9781594483295; La breve y maravillosa vida de Óscar Wao, Junot Diaz, Vintage Espanol, 9780679776697
• Because of Winn-Dixie, Kate DiCamillo, Candlewick, 9780763625580
• Zeitoun, Dave Eggers, Vintage, 9780307387943
• Peace Like a River, Leif Enger, Grove/Atlantic, 9780802139252
• A Reliable Wife, Robert Goolrick, Algonquin, 9781565129771
• Q Is for Quarry, Sue Grafton, Berkley, 9780425239001
• The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini, Riverhead, 9781594480003
• A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving, Ballantine, 9780345417978
• The Stand, Stephen King, Anchor, 9780307743688
• The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver, Perennial, 9780060786502
• The History of Love, Nicole Krauss, Norton, 9780393328622
• The Namesake, Jhumpa Lahiri, Mariner, 9780618485222
• The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien, Mariner, 9780618706419
• Bel Canto, Ann Patchett, Perennial, 9780060838720
• My Sister’s Keeper, Jodi Picoult, Atria, 9780743454537
• Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson, Picador, 9780312424091
• The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold, Back Bay, 9780316044936
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot, Broadway, 9781400052189
• Just Kids, Patti Smith, Ecco, 9780060936228
• The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls, Scribner, 9780743247542
• The Book Thief, Markus Zusak, Knopf Books for Young Readers, 9780375842207

Lennertz said, “We want the book givers to reach out to new or light readers, especially in underserved places like nursing homes, schools, hospitals, and poor neighborhoods, but also in public gathering places like coffee shops and malls. And by offering a range of fiction, nonfiction, and books for teens, we believe we have great books that the givers will be passionate about handing out and that will appeal to a wide audience of potential new readers.”

The title selections include 30 picks, because several categories were expanded, notably from three to five YA/middle reader books.  Lennertz said that this was “due to popular demand from booksellers and librarians, as well as adding a sci-fi novel, an additional mystery, and a surprise classic from an indie press. I am thrilled about this, as it broadens the appeal of the list to our two audiences: the 50,000 book givers and the million new readers we want to reach.”

Lennertz stressed that the bookseller/librarian panel was not asked to come up with a best-books-of-all-time list. “I asked that they envision themselves handing out the book in a public or social services setting, and to imagine that book getting someone excited about reading,” he said. “This is a beautiful mix of books.”

World Book Night U.S. is modeled after a successful promotion held last year in the United Kingdom. The 2012 celebration will happen on the same day — April 23 — in both the U.K. and U.S., and it is hoped that more countries will join to eventually make it a real worldwide book event.

Learn more about World Book Night at www.us.worldbooknight.org; www.twitter.com/wbnamerica; and www.facebook.com/worldbooknightusa.