Today is World Book Day. Actually, it's World Book Day in the UK and Ireland - the rest of the world tends to hold this event on 23rd April, but a March date suits us best so we're ahead of the game.
Book-based activities are taking place at schools and libraries, kids receive free book tokens and there are six special £1 children's books for sale at booksellers up and down the land.
It's terrific that in this age of screen-based young folk with their prehensile thumbs from so much time spent playing computer games, those same whippersnappers can still be captivated by the printed word. Last year awareness of the event was at its highest level ever among children, with 89% of children recalling it.
Although the focus is on the young, adults benefit too, and ten titles priced at £1.99 are being released as so called "quick reads" to engage with grown-ups who've perhaps lost the reading habit for one reason or another or aren't terribly confident about their reading skills.
A moment's pause came my way as I was looking into all this book-based action. One of the charities supported by the event is Book Aid International, which in a typical year sends half a million books to underdeveloped countries - places where a single book can cost the equivalent of a month's wages. That's a sobering thought, so how marvellous that a festival of bookish appreciation here results in the dispersal of knowledge and pleasure in far away countries too.
