World Book Day

Every country must celebrate World Book Day
Posted by bx-zone.com 10 Jan, 2020

World Book Day

Although everyday life is celebration but we celebrate it in particular on one day that day we call as ‘Birthday’. It marks the celebration of life.

Similarly, a book reader can’t live without his/her book. He needs to read book every day but there has to be a day to celebrate reading, education and books. Well, there is one celebrated by UNESCO and it is celebrated on 23rd April every year – ‘the world book day’.

The World book day also known as the International day of books is organized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. It is organized in order to promote reading.

This day marks the celebration of reading, publishing and literature. The World Book Day is celebrated in over 100 countries. Even though, it is celebrated on 23rd April of every year but in the United Kingdom and Ireland it is celebrated on the first Thursday of March month.

So, guys reading this blog in UK and Ireland, World book day in 2020 is going to fall on 7th of March.

The Importance of Reading

Reading is very important. Reading books turn ordinary into extraordinary, dumb into intellectual and leads to having great brains.

The benefits of reading are too many. One of the things common in today’s generation is depression, the major cause of which has been discovered as loneliness. One benefit of reading books is it kills loneliness, makes you feel confident about yourself and hence, doesn’t lead to illnesses like depression.

So, when in trouble, whenever you’re feeling low, pick books for reading.

Another benefit of reading books which justifies the importance of reading is that reading books for at least 3.5 hours a week i.e. 30 minutes a day adds 24 months to your life than the people who don’t read books.

Thus, the importance of books is close to yoga and exercise in bringing longevity to life.

World book day is conducted to celebrate the importance of reading, literature, and books.

The birth of the world book day

Spain, a country which boasts La Liga, Barcelona, Madrid, El Clasico, Flamenco music, and bullfights has a city Valencia. In Valencia was a writer Vicente Clavel Andrés who gave this idea of honoring his fellow author Miguel De Cervantes.

Initially, the honoring was supposed to be commenced on 7th of October, on the birthday of Miguel De Cervantes but later it was changed to 23rd April his death anniversary. UNESCO, on the other hand made it officially as ‘World Book Day’ in the year 1995.

The date of 23rd April also marks the death date of William Shakespeare, hence, the world book day also honors one of most genius authors of all time ‘the great William Shakespeare’. However, the death day of William Shakespeare is marked as per the Gregorian Calendar, however, the death anniversary of Miguel De Cervantes is marked using ‘Julian Calendar’.

World Book Capital

Each year UNESCO chooses a city around the world based on few criteria as the World Book Capital. In 2019, the recently passed year, Sharjah was chosen as the ‘World Book Capital’. The World Book Capital of 2019 emphasized on highlighting and protecting the indigenous languages.

Below is the list of all the World Book Capitals chosen by UNESCO in the last 10 years –

2010 -> Ljubjana(Slovenia)

2011 -> Buenos Aires (Argentina)

2012 -> Yerevan (Armenia)

2013 -> Bangkok (Thailand)

2014 -> Port Harcourt(Nigeria)

2015 -> Incheon (Armenia)

2016 -> Wroclaw(Poland)

2017 -> Conakry (Republic of Guinea)

2018 -> Athens (Greece)

2019 -> Sharjah (UAE)

We’re already in 2020 and I am certain that this article has aroused the curiosity to know which will be the World book capital of 2020.

You certainly don’t have to wait for it to know because it has already been announced. The World Book Capital of 2020 is going to be Kuala Lumpur(Malaysia).

Should you celebrate World Book Day?

Of course yes. It’s the time to think on 23rd April all the good things that have happened to you because of books. You need to trace it back like this –

Let’s say you are in your dream job earning a decent salary, then you must have got this job because of your highest qualification, the evidence of which is your degree certificate. How did you earn that degree certificate but? By passing exams of course.

And how did you pass exams? By studying from BOOKS. So there is always a connection between books and the countless good things that happen to you.

You must surely give it a thought and the best day to do it is on World Book Day.

What can you do on World Book Day?

There are so many things you can do on World Book Day related to books, a few of them I am providing you below-

1. Clean up and reorganize your bookshelf

On world book day, you can pay respect to books by cleaning their house. On this day, you can reorganize your books, while doing so, you can take a look at their covers and remember what you read, remember the good time you had while reading them.

2. Add new books to your collection

You can go out to a books store and buy some books which you always wanted to. A few days before 23rd April you can prepare a list of books to buy and you can execute that list on the world book day. In case you don’t want to go out to buy brand new books then you can sign up on the used books store of bx-zone.com and get second hand books from people living near you.

3. Dedicate the entire day to read a book

You can take the day off, pick a book and sit to read. You can go on a reading marathon for hours with a goal to finish the book you picked. Well, can anything be better than reading a book on world book day.

4. Donate books

23rd April is the day of exaltation of reading, literature and copyright but there are plenty of children, men and women in this world who do not get books to read. You can find such people and donate books to them. This will be a big help for those who want to read but don’t have books and a step in this direction will surely be towards making world a better pace.

Like, it is mentioned earlier in the blog that world book day is celebrated by 100 countries. This also means that there are many countries where it is not celebrated.

It’s time that we spread the information about this day around as it’s time that we think of making world a better place for which reading is necessary, books are necessary.

So, did you know about ‘World Book Day’ already? Or you came to know of it through this article? Which country do you belong? Is world book day celebrated in your country?