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World Book Night 2014 titles include 'Wild,' 'Where'd You Go, Bernadette'

The titles which will be distributed for free as part of World Book Night include works by Cheryl Strayed, Maria Semple, Agatha Christie, and more.

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Luke MacGregor/Reuters
A volunteer distributes books for World Book Night in London.
  • By Molly Driscoll Staff Writer

World Book Night, which is being celebrated in the US for the third time this April, has selected the books that will be distributed for free. 

On World Book Night, volunteers hand out free copies of a certain number of selected books to friends, family, or anyone they encounter. The event was begun in the UK and Ireland in 2011. The US and Germany adopted the custom in 2012. A group of those who work in the books industry as well as some librarians select the titles that will be given out each year. (Those who have volunteered to distribute books in the past can nominate works for consideration as well.)

This year, a group of 35 titles will be distributed, including “Wild” by Cheryl Strayed, “Kitchen Confidential” by Anthony Bourdain, “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” by Ransom Riggs, “Where’d You Go, Bernadette” by Maria Semple, and more.

The work “Same Difference” by Derek Kirk Kim, which will be distributed this year, is the first graphic novel to be given out as part of World Book Night. In addition, Esmerelda Santiago’s book “When I Was Puerto Rican” will be available in both English and Spanish and two of the works to be distributed, “Bernadette” and “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet” by Jamie Ford, can be found in large-print versions.

“World Book Night is about giving books and encouraging reading in those who don’t regularly do so,” the event’s website reads. “But it is also about more than that: It’s about people, communities and connections, about reaching out to others and touching lives in the simplest of ways – through the sharing of stories.”

Volunteers can sign up on the World Book Night website until Jan. 5, 2014, to give out books. Check out the full list of books that will be given out here.

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