Not only is April 23 Shakespeare's birthday – his 450th this year – but it's a day when books are the centre of festivals and events around the world.
In the UK and Ireland, today marks the celebration of World Book Night. This year, for the first time, individual readers are are being encouraged to register as community book givers and give a book away – be it to a friend or loved one, a member of their community or a complete stranger – to spread the love for literature.
Elsewhere, World Book Day takes place today, as organised by UNESCO, with festivities such as the Catalan Sant Jordi – to mark Saint George's day, in honour of Catalonia's patron saint. This "day of the book and the rose" is a Valentine's day of sorts in which streets are packed with stalls, and couples demonstrate their love by exchanging roses and books – giving publishers a massive boost along the way.
Also today, the title of World Book Capital will move from the hands of Bangkok to the Nigerian city of Port Harcourt.
Did you take part in any of these literary activities? Show us how you celebrated – or tell us what book you would give to someone you love. Share your stories and photos by clicking on the blue 'contribute' button. Here is a selection of your contributions:
My boyfriend and I are currently in a long distance situation. To keep close we've decided to read a book together. It was a tough one deciding which book and also limited to availability on different continents but we decided on a Haruki Murakami. :)
Following the Catalan tradition, I have just bought my English boyfriend the book "Stone in a Landslide" by Maria Barbal, great Catalan literature! I just hope he will think about the rose :)
by Maria Puig
My Nigerian husband and I have recently shared, very much enjoyed and discussed together over meals Adichie's AMERICANAH. What better way to enhance our love?
by PatLux
The Big Sleep for its dark humor as my husband is Swiss and methinks he doesn't understand. How mistaken I was. A few years back Stendhals, 'The Red and the Black' and 'The Way of all flesh'.
by kultur
Not easy to think of something suitably Sonnet-y for her. So let's Frankenstein some generic loved one out of the air, out of the thin air and then – oh, I don't know.
Wise Children, by Angela Carter
Boy's Life, by Robert McCammon
The Cunning Man, by Robertson DaviesAll of them celebrate story, all of them celebrate life.
by Jantar
The Four Loves, by C.S. Lewis: This is a beautiful, heart-searching book on the nature love. By reading it yourself and giving it to someone you love, not only would you would both find out precisely where you stood (!) but you could enjoy the greater depth of love in all its nuances opened up before you!
by danielsgang
Lights Out In Wonderland: Zara, mother of my gorgeous girlfriend, gave me Lights Out In Wonderland by DCC Pierre. Amazing woman, amazing novel, amazingly eye-opening, disturbing, hilarious portrait of the time we live in.
I was a WBN Giver last year. A lovely experience. As for a book to give a loved one, I gave my hub the complete Shakespeare's plays when we started dating. He was an actor, and loved it. Last Christmas I gave my best friend CS Lewis' Til We Have Faces. She'd never heard of it and loves it as well.
by gooddogs
Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass: I would give this book to my partner Gene (for the second time) because he considers it one of the finest poems ever written. He loves the poem so much he is never in fact in possession of a physical copy, as he is constantly thrusting it unto other people. I myself derive great pleasure from the fact that many of my favourite books are never in my own possession, even my favourite River Cottage cookbook, which lives in a sharehouse where a number of my friends share and enjoy it.
by mcnicole
The Alchemist by Paul Coelho: I have actually given this book to My One True Love – for him to read, interpret and act on as he pleases. This book spoke to me in volumes, on so many levels, when I first read it, and I wanted to share the possibility of that same experience with someone I cared about. Basically, try to reach for and realize your dreams within each and every day, don't overlook what's right in front of you, and don't take anything for granted (especially not love). We all gotta have a dream!
by chowcsy
Essays in Love by Alain de Botton: I read it and made annotations on the margins as well as underlinings. Then I sent it through the mail to her job. She now is making notes of her own and then I'll re-read with her annotations. We shall share infinitely this text.
by sodaverde
Essays in Love by Alain de Botton: Told me all I needed to know about hows and whys of fall in love, and how when deep in the love we try to destroy it because feeling good about something for too long is an unnatural human condition.
by ID1813748
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee: Because as Atticus shows us, love is about imagining what it is like to walk in another person's shoes...
by PenCoops
The God Argument: This is A C Grayling's case against religion and for humanism. I think it is the most important book of the year and I am giving it to two of my grandsons (lovely smart teenagers who think they know it all).
The God of Small Things: The lyrical beauty of this novel, it's central theme of who decides 'who should be loved and how much', and the vivid descriptions and characterisation, in this book have never left me. I read this book twelve years ago, and have been recommending it to people I love ever since.
by sbmeads
Can I pick three books? Someone has already beaten me to Shakespeare's Sonnets but I've included it anyway. There really isn't a human emotion these extraordinary poems don't encompass. While many are dark and difficult, others are just breathtakingly beautiful.
The second book I recommend with a measure of sadness, as well as love; the late, great Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Love in the Time of Cholera – a book to get lost in as well as fall in love with. Absolutely beautiful prose. I can only imagine what it reads like in the original Spanish.
Finally, a book I bang on about all the time - John Irving's astonishing A Prayer for Owen Meany. Dealing with religion, specifically Christianity, I know it might not be to everyone's taste but I've given this book to so many friends and loved ones and they've always been grateful. I don't think a book (or a main character) has ever moved me so much. It is the book I return to whenever I have a bad case of what Audrey Hepburn referred to as "the mean reds" in Breakfast at Tiffany's.
by Keysersoyze
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