As the Amazon Books team, we are always looking for ways to celebrate reading. Amazon’s Books team in Spain had shared Barcelona’s annual World Book Day tradition - a vibrant annual event where the whole community comes together to celebrate books, reading, and authors on April 23.
We knew there was an opportunity to honor World Book Day on a larger scale, engaging Amazon’s many Books and Kindle teams around the globe to share this tradition with our worldwide community of book lovers.
A little over a week ago, we launched our first global celebration honoring World Book Day through the Global Free Library Event Series. Across twelve countries, Amazon employees, local community members, and book publishers donated more than 17,200 books to bring the events to life – reaching over 7,000 book lovers. In the spirit of World Book Day, readers were encouraged to leave a book they love and want to share, and to discover and select a new book (or e-book) to bring home and read. My son and I donated a book we loved reading together, Danny the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl. It’s a great story about underdogs, unusual adventures, and the deep bonds between fathers and sons. We hope the next reader enjoys it as much as we do.
I have always been passionate about books, which is why I feel so lucky to do the job that that I do. Organizations like World Reader, Room to Read and First Book share that passion. In honor of World Book Day I took the opportunity to donate to these important literacy organizations. I love the time my son and I share together reading, and am so appreciative that these non-profits are increasing access to books for children and families in need.
Finally, we were so excited to see nearly a million book lovers sharing why they #LovetoRead on social media. These messages highlighted the power that books have to transform lives and shape communities. For me, I #LovetoRead because each book is an adventure - taking me to places I've never been, and introducing me to ideas and people I might never have otherwise encountered.
I am so appreciative of the efforts of the many Amazonians who organized the events - bringing together communities around the world to share their love of reading with us this World Book Day.
