UNESCO World Book Day 2026

From the UNESCO website:

"Every year, on 23 April, UNESCO celebrates World Book and Copyright Day in recognition of the power of books as a bridge between generations and across cultures.

"Every year, as part of celebrations for World Book and Copyright Day, a World Book Capital is selected by UNESCO and international organizations representing the major sectors of the book industry – publishers, booksellers and libraries. Selected cities promote books and reading for all age groups and across all of society, in the host country and beyond.

"To date, UNESCO has designated 26 World Book Capitals, from Madrid, Spain, in 2001, to Rabat, Morocco, in 2026."

https://www.unesco.org/en/days/world-book-and-copyright

What are you reading this World Book Day?

>1 featherbear: Thank you for sharing this. I love celebrations like this and somehow didn't know this one.

I'm reading Horoscopes for the Dead poems by Billy Collins and Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino though i confess I've not got much reading done in April, not from a book that is. I've been reading tons online, researching and exploring poetry for National Poetry Month and sharing tidbits I learn in a daily topic on The Poetry Collective. It's been a lot of fun!

I have just made a post about World Book Day on Litsy! I always look forward to it (or to the closest Saturday to WBD) because in France where I live, independent bookshops give out a specially-published book, as well as roses, to echo Sant Jordi traditions in Catalonia.

Today, I am reading La Chouette aveugle (The Blind Owl) by Sadeq Hedayât, Les Lumières sombres : comprende la pensée néoréactionnaire by Arnaud Miranda, and Taste Vietnam - The Morning Glory Cookbook by Trịnh Diễm Vy, so one fiction, one non-fiction, and one cookbook/memoir.

>2 DebiCates: I love Italo Calvino (but I haven't read Cosmicomics yet).

>3 Dilara86: Great traditions you have! I'm quite jealous, actually. Sounds like a great way to celebrate.

I'm loving Cosmicomics! It's my first Calvino. I'm journaling each chapter and the journey its been taking me (researching the science behind each) beginning here on Lt, https://www.librarything.com/topic/383217

I'm stalled, though, until after April is done. (National Poetry Month for us in the US and Canada.) Does France have a National Poetry Day/Month? I am afraid to hear of how wonderful a celebration that is, if you have one.

>4 DebiCates: ) Does France have a National Poetry Day/Month?
We have something called "Le printemps des poètes" (poets' spring), which takes place mostly in March, with public readings and other events. It's hyped up in libraries and bookshops (possibly schools too), but it's fair to say it's not "a thing" for the general population.

Thank you for the link!

>5 Dilara86: National Poetry Month is not "a thing" for the general population here either. Poetry is low man on the literary totem pole for the public. Even my public library serving the whole county of a quarter million people had nothing at all planned for this month for poetry. Bummer. However, there are pockets of people and groups that give poetry its due esteem, like at "Poetry Slams," popular in bigger cities, but rare in my area.

Some recent or current reading "between generations and across cultures":

Across cultures in translation:

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle / Haruki Murakami (from the Japanese)

The Red and The Black / Stendahl (from the French)

Anniversaries: From a Year in the Life of Gesine Cresspahl / Uwe Johnson (from the German)

The Books of Jacob: A Novel / Olga Tokarczuk (from the Polish)

The House of the Spirits / Isabel Allende (from the Spanish)

Between generations:

Mr Sammler's Planet / Saul Bellow

The Color Purple / Alice Walker

A Suitable Boy / Vikram Seth

probably most of the novels in translation also represent the struggle between generations

>1 featherbear: Thanks for posting about World Book Day!

In honor of the occasion, Tim used Syndetics Unbound data to create a bookish world tour! Pulling two years of the most searched and viewed titles across U.S. public libraries, he built a tour of the planet, with the top author and book per country, from almost 80 nations, all the way from Argentina to Zimbabwe.

Read all about in here:
https://proquest.syndetics.com/news/2026/04/23/books-around-the-world/

>8 AbigailAdams26: Fascinating tour, w/some surprises. Did I miss a citation for Indonesia?

It did remind me of 2 recently read e-books w/texts translated from the Chinese: the trilogy associated with The Three Body Problem & Journey to the West.

>8 AbigailAdams26: I have an ongoing project to read a book by an author from every country in Africa. This will be helpful!

>8 AbigailAdams26: Thank you for sharing that, Abigail. I found it quite endearing that so many books favorites were written by native authors, native speakers of that country. I think it says something about being proud of our own "local boy does good." Or perhaps it says we like to read about something we can relate--which in turn is ironically a strong testament for the need for diversity of choice in our public libraries since readers like to read about people like themselves and few countries are cookie-cutter homogenous.

>8 AbigailAdams26: Tim does dig jamming on massive amounts of data, doesn't he?

For World Book Day I started reading The Running Man by Stephen King. I'm almost finished with it! I was alternating between reading and seeing what kind of fun librarians are having this Library Week! This is one of many fun posts I've been seeing around the internet this week: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1KUQKbRBPR/

What have some of your fav libraries been up to for World Book Day/Library Week?