Everyone loves a celebration, right? And Free Amazon Books? If you love reading, and free books, this is your celebration coming up on April 23, 2018. Drum roll for the book lovers….. it’s World Book Day! I hear the fireworks and bands, the oohs and the aahs! This is what we’ve been training for, right?

Background

I’ll admit, this is a new holiday to me. (Every day is Book Day in my World) Since it’s unfamiliar as an official “thing,”  I had to do a little digging. Here’s the scoop! And I have to admit, this only caught my eye because of the free books from Amazon deal.

This celebration occurs yearly on April 23. Amazingly, that date was selected because two of the most revered writers of all time died on that same date, albeit years apart. William Shakespeare died April 23, 1616. On that same date in 1547, the writer Miguel de Cervantes died. This date was first proposed in 1923 by Catalonian booksellers as a way to recognize and celebrate the life of Spain’s most famed writer, Cervantes. Initially, there  would be events on both his birth date and the date of his death.

Now it gets confusing. In 1995, UNESCO declared April 23 the World Book and Copyright Day, elevating the status of the event to truly worldwide. April 23 was chosen not only in recognition of the two authors, Shakespeare and Cervantes, but also to honor a host of other writers who were either born or passed away on that date. The list includes Inca Garcilaso de la Vega (Spain), Maurice Druon (France), Halldór Laxness (Iceland),Vladimir Nabokov (Russian) Josep Pla (Spain), and Manuel Mejía Vallejo (Colombia). Here’s a funky side note – any noted variances in the actual birth or death date are attributed to the differences in Gregorian and Julian calendar systems in use at during that author’s life.

UNESCO WORLD BOOK DAY

Once UNESCO instituted April 23 as the recognized World Book and Copyright day, the celebration moved from toward a more universal recognition. However, it appears that to  this day, many nations celebrate the event on a range of dates in the spring. For instance, the UK celebrated World Book Day on March 1 this year. Some of the shifting of dates is related to Easter and other holidays, with WBD being moved as other holidays are more static on the calendar.

THE GOOD NEWS

All that background was just to fill you in on the big news! For the next few days, visit the Amazon link below, and you’ll be treated to 9, yes NINE, free downloads of high quality reading. The theme focuses on reading around the world in celebration on World Book Day, so the downloads are set in countries around the world. I’ve downloaded all, but haven’t  started any quite yet. (I’m right in the middle of Love and Ruin by Paula McLain.) But I can’t wait to dig into this exciting array of titles.

Now that you know about this great deal, click the image above to hop over to Amazon and download away! I can’t wait to hear what you think of the books, so as you read, feel free to comment and share your thoughts.

Happy Reading!

PS – I’m an Amazon affiliate, but these are free, so I”m not making any money, I’m just sharing the good news!