World Book Day 2025 is on Thursday, March 6, 2025: The 23rd of next month is World Book And Copyright Day?

Thursday, March 6, 2025 is World Book Day 2025.

Sponsored Deals

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

I'm treating this as a cumulative list, darling, so I'll just add to my darling friends' choices...

Like darling Meds, I tend to be biased toward humor, and think that any list that doesn't contain The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and at least one P.G. Wodehouse novel is woefully inadequate - I'd say at minimum, The Code of the Woosters or Jeeves in the Morning to represent Jeeves and Wooster, and Life at Blandings as an introduction to the lunacy of Blandings Castle. Then, for a lesson in satire, anything by Jonathan Swift, or Mark Twain, or, if your taste runs to modern fiction, Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. If you like your humor bawdy, try Joseph Andrews or Tom Jones by Henry Fielding...and if you like it postmodern and quite freaky-weird, try some John Barth (either The Sot-Weed Factor or Giles Goat-Boy manage to be both really weird and accessible). If you prefer goofy, imaginative lunacy, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland by Lewis Carroll is a must.

I'm also fond of a good mystery, and like to combine humor and mystery whenever possible, so any of the Rumpole novels by John Mortimer are on my list...and any of Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody Emerson novels work for me, too, as well-researched, well-plotted, funny homages to 19th century adventure novels. For less funny, but utterly, utterly brilliant mysteries, any serious bibliophile should read Gaudy Night and The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers (if they don't read all the Peter Wimsey novels), The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey, and The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett. I could go on for days about mysteries worth reading, so I'll leave it at that.

To combine humor and travel writing, go with Neither Here Nor There by Bill Bryson - there may be better travel writers, but I can't remember one who made me laugh quite so hard. For suspenseful spy novels, John Le Carre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, and Ken Follett's The Eye of the Needle are both seriously worth the read.

Of course, I think everyone should read Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, all six of Jane Austen's major works (Persuasion is my favorite), and as a student of the early novel, I would also say that everyone should read the first genuine novel in English - Pamela, by Samuel Richardson. It's a masterpiece of smarmy, titillating moralizing. I also love his very long novel, Clarissa...and for another seductive masterpiece, Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre Choderlos De Laclos. I think people should also read some of the foundational classics of literature around the world - Beowulf, The Song of Roland, at least one Icelandic saga, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, The Tale of Genji by Lady Murasaki, and Don Quixote by Cervantes, among many, many others.

I'd also say that any basic list should have The Hobbit, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and the Silmarillion on it, as well as some Dickens (say Bleak House and A Tale of Two Cities, although he was most fond of David Copperfield), something from a Dumas (maybe The Count of Monte Cristo or The Three Musketeers), something from Trollope (The Way We Live Now or anything from the Palliser novels).

I need to stop now, or I will keep listing books until I fall asleep at my keyboard.

(((RP)))

World book day help!?

snow white? could add a red bow hair band would look good.

Or if you wore a wig you could go as anything.

Famous girls in books :

alice in wonderland

snow white

pocohontas

esmerelda gypsy off hunchback of notre dame

and then there are the unusal characters you wouldnt typically think of

Hermione Granger!

moaning myrtle

comic book heroes? invisible woman

black widow

mary jane- spider man

Mulan

you dont have to go as a girl though

mad hatter from alice in wonderland - get a top hat and glue a playing card to the side

white rabbit

witch off sleeping beauty

dragon off mulan

winnie the pooh lol

tiger

piglet

eeyore

omg you could go as half beauty half beast lol that would be awesome paint half your face like a werewolf with a chunky eyebrow and back comb your hair on that side and then on the other side do all girly pretty make up and half lips of lipstick,

Write a Sample notice for " World Book Day"?

April 23 marks the anniversary of the birth or death of a range of well-known writers, including Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Maurice Druon, Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, Haldor Kiljan Laxness, Manuel Mejía Vallejo, Vladimir Nabokov, Josep Pla and William Shakespeare. For this reason, UNESCO's General Conference chose this date to pay tribute to books, the authors who wrote them, and the copyright laws that protect them.

What do people do?

A range of activities to promote reading and the cultural aspects of books are held all over the world. Many of these emphasize international cooperation or friendships between countries. Events include: relay readings of books and plays; the distribution of bookmarks; the announcement of the winners of literary competitions; and actions to promote the understanding of laws on copyright and the protection of authors' intellectual property.

In some years, the Children's and Young People's Literature in the Service of Tolerance is awarded. This is a prize for novels, collections of short stories or picture books that promote tolerance, peace, mutual understanding and respect for other peoples and cultures. There are two categories: one for books aimed at children aged up to 12 years; and one for those aimed at young people aged 13 to 18 years.

Purpose of the day

World Book and Copyright Day is an occasion to pay a worldwide tribute to books and authors and to encourage people to discover the pleasure of reading. It is hoped that this will lead to the renewed respect for those who have made irreplaceable contributions to social and cultural progress. In some years, the UNESCO Prize for Children's and Young People's Literature in the Service of Tolerance is awarded. It is also hoped that World Book and Copyright Day will increase people's understanding of and adherence to copyright laws and other measures to protect intellectual copyright.

Background

The year 1995 was named the United Nations Year for Tolerance and UNESCO's General Conference, held in Paris, concentrated on this theme. The delegates voted to establish an annual occasion to carry the message of tolerance into the future, in the form of a day to celebrate books, authors and the laws that protect them. The date was chosen because April 23 marks the anniversary of the birth or death of a range of internationally renowned writers and because of the Catalan traditions surrounding this day. In Catalonia, a region of Spain, April 23 is known as La Diada de Sant Jordi (St George's Day) and it is traditional for sweethearts to exchange books and roses. World Book and Copyright Day has been held annually since 1995.

Symbols

Each year a poster is designed and distributed around the world. It features images designed to encourage people, particularly children, to read books and appreciate literature. There is also a logo for World Book and Copyright Day. It features a circle, representing the world, and two books, one of which is open.