Now, there’s a good idea…

Twitter is talking about giving books instead of greetings cards. World Book Day has been giving books to children for 25 years, with our support.

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Not everyone on Twitter, it seems, wholeheartedly supports Caitlin Moran’s latest idea to get more books into the hands of readers by encouraging people to give thoughtfully selected paperbacks instead of greetings cards (you know – a similar size, a great range of designs, you can write in them – comparatively so much more for your money!).

And despite Philippa Perry’s brave defence of the notion to her chatty followers, it seems that for many book lovers, and gift givers, the choice of book is paramount; in fact it’s a deal breaker. (If only there were a way to give choice! Perhaps a voucher of some sort… Just saying)

As this debate rages (amicably) on the Twittersphere, rather appropriately this week is World Book Day’s 25th birthday.

The genus of World Book Day, and why we have sponsored it for all these years, is the simple idea that as a society we can encourage reading for pleasure, with its proven links to academic attainment, most powerfully when we give choice. And to supercharge this in the UK and Ireland we create an array of books, lovingly written by some of the world’s best authors and biggest publishers, and attractively displayed in thousands of bookshops across the country. Armed with their token, a unique form of currency that buys them the book they want – not the one on the reading list at school – hundreds of thousands of children joyfully descend each year on this Aladdin’s cave of creativity.

So, lest we bemoan our lack of an equivalent to Iceland’s Jólabókaflóð, or Catalonia’s festival of St Jordi, let’s remember that in World Book Day, the UK and Ireland have the biggest annual celebration of books in the world… now that’s an idea we can all support.

Written by Alex de Berry