World Book Day (23 April)

[SectorVector]

Today (23 April) is UNESCO World Book Day.


"World Book Day or World Book and Copyright Day (also known as International Day of the Book or World Book Days) is a yearly event on 23 April, organized by UNESCO to promote reading, publishing and copyright. In the United Kingdom, the day is instead recognised on the first Thursday in March."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Book_Day


"It’s a celebration of authors, illustrators, books and (most importantly) it’s a celebration of reading. In fact, it’s the biggest celebration of its kind, designated by UNESCO as a worldwide celebration of books and reading, and marked in over 100 countries all over the world."
http://www.worldbookday.com/about/

Please share your thoughts.
- What were the first books you read.
- What books prompted you to read more.
- What books/authors would you like to recommend.
- Book festivals around the world.
- Form your own question :-)

My initial reading experience was Enid Blyton, Hardy Boys, then a little Alistair Maclean. Then the reading habit came to a stop. Much later I picked up on Erle Stanley Gardner (Perry Mason), James Hadley Chase, Frederick Forsyth, the books of Sir Henry Rider Haggard (esp the Allan Quatermain series), probably a few more, but never much. Somewhere in between there was a lot of P.G. Wodehouse.

I do wish I had read or developed an early taste for other authors - writers from my own country and language.

There are so many books and authors nowadays. Too many perhaps.

Thought i'd make a post of this before the day wore out.

Do share your reading "habits" and thoughts if you could. :-)

[connor17]

I started reading fantasy epic books when I was a teenager. I read The lord of the rings a lot of times, for example.
The first great book that I read was Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo. It's really a life changer, you never go back after that, it's like Beethoven. My other favorite ones are Crime and punishment by Dostoyevsky and Anna Karenina by Tolstoy.
I would recommend David Foster Wallace books, they are smart and funny.

[Arzoo]

Read when I was 8 or 9 years of age.

Jack London: The Call of the Wild

and

HG Wells : The Invisible Man

Strange and fascinating worlds - were the worlds in those books. I remember the then spine-tingling experiments on color metamorphosis by Griffins well. And the hypnotic visions of Buck in the fire long before he embraced the wild. Remember looking up the word "vividly".

However, I should mention that my grandfather used to read to me an edited version of The Odyssey in the long afternoons after lunch from when I was six or something. So - that would be my first book. I had heard the book  - cover to cover too many times. I believe I asked to be read The Iliad because I was rooting for and loved Odysseus.

I only read it much, much later (seven years later).

[Riichu]

I started reading fantasy epic books when I was a teenager. I read The lord of the rings a lot of times, for example.
The first great book that I read was Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo. It's really a life changer, you never go back after that, it's like Beethoven. My other favorite ones are Crime and punishment by Dostoyevsky and Anna Karenina by Tolstoy.
I would recommend David Foster Wallace books, they are smart and funny.

Anna Karenina & crime and punishment are my love affair is infinite jest & les miserables as good as AK & Cp ?

[RobertX]

I like religious texts, namely The Holy Bible and The Quran.

[Riichu]

I like religious texts, namely The Holy Bible and The Quran.

Then your would love Guru granth sahib ..its the holy book of sikhs...everything is contained in it...

and the gnostic scriptures of nag hammadi

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-I have an aversion to academic books and the first book i read willingly was i think on how to get girls lol(of course they dont work)
- books prompted me to read more was Dostoevsky's and Tolstoy's works (I love all of their works..except Tolstoy's non fiction)
- I wouldn't like to recommend anything because i think people should only read books that they feel drawn to .For me reading is like a love affair that i can't have with books that don't draw me towards them..

but I'll recommend "The Idiot" by Dostoevsky because it has touched me the most ✌