You will have to excuse me. People who know me well know I love celebrating anything about books. Put another way – I find any excuses satisfactory to go out and buy books so  I may add them to the list of unfinished books I am struggling to read. However, World Book & Copyright Day was already on my calendar as a very busy day. So I was not able to write something together last night.

The UNESCO designated April 23 as World Book Day but expanded it to include Copyright since, for some reason, the United Kingdom decided to commemorate World Book Day all by itself in March. I am not going to shy away from doing this twice a year, so I have no other comments.

As you probably know, UNESCO’s mission is to ensure quality education for citizens, but it focuses on children. As a kid, I remember buying those hand-made greeting cards that I practically never sent out, and I was proud to do my part. I also participated in a few of their events. Now, I am glad to find out they have this effort called Libraries Without Borders—another place to forget to return books to. I jest!

This day has the UNESCO recognize the contribution of cities in providing access to books, for the consumption by the general public. I’m not entirely sure what metrics they used, but congratulations, Strasbourg! Félicitations!

I leave it up to you to find out which city is the lucky one for next year. And yes, the city has already been picked!

References:

1. Cover Image: https://maps.google.com

2. UNESCO World Book Day designation: https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/unesco-names-strasbourg-world-book-capital-2024