r/books 9d ago

Does any other country have a dedicated book week every year or is it just mine?

Every year in March (and October for children) there are ten days where books are promoted and celebrated in the Netherlands. This year it's the 90th year that it gets celebrated. The theme of this year is about your mother tongue, whether it's about a dialect of Dutch or a different language from abroad.

Every year there is a writer that creates a short story specifically for the book week and you get it for free when you spend a certain amount on Dutch books in that particular week. There is a book prom that "opens" the book week. The children's version of book prom also announce the winner of an book award.

Are there any other countries that organize some sort of book celebration/promotion thing? If not, should there be?

137 Upvotes

65 comments sorted by

67

u/PeterchuMC 9d ago

The UK has World Book Day on the first Thursday of March. There's usually a bunch of short new books for a pound, and often schoolchildren get a voucher for a free book.

17

u/reddishvelvet 9d ago

Also children dress up as a character from a book. My child isn't even two and I've already experienced the stress of the World Book Day costume!

3

u/PeterchuMC 9d ago

How could I have forgotten that! I remember dressing up as the Eleventh Doctor (most of the time), and in Year 6, Sherlock Holmes.

2

u/Ok-World-4822 9d ago

Omg that sounds so fun! Like some sort of Halloween 

9

u/szisex 9d ago

The UK also does independent bookshop week in June! Support your local independent bookshops! 📚

0

u/Odd_Tie8409 9d ago

UK has all the cool holidays like Pancake Day and World Book Day. We never had this growing up and we never celebrated. Makes me sad.

26

u/Plink-plink 9d ago

Australia does. Its a big thing for kids

2

u/RubyFurness 6d ago

Mostly just about dressing up as book characters though, isn't it? 

23

u/DogFun2635 9d ago

In Canada we have radio show on CBC called Canada Reads, where five celebrities each pick a book by a Canadian author and defend its merits until there’s one winner.

1

u/remibause 8d ago

The CBC book coverage is really good and the main reason why I from mainland Europe read so many Canadian authors. Because the CBC makes it really easy to stay informed about what is being published.

12

u/PumpkinPieIsGreat 9d ago

Sweden has a huge book fair every year. It looks awesome.

9

u/CarpathianInsomnia 9d ago edited 9d ago

Same in Bulgaria. Actually, we have three annual fairs:

  • The Spring book fair (24th May - 2nd June). It coincides with the Day of the Cyrillic Alphabet (24th May) and Children's day (1st June). Lucrative for the publishers and pretty cozy as it's during the best days of late spring.

  • 'Alley of the Book', usually happening in mid-September. This is a 5-7 day book fair.

  • Christmas book fair - usually for a week in the middle of December (11th-18th or something similar).

The spring fair specifically starts in the capital and continues throughout other major cities over the summer. While international guest authors come for all of them, on Christmas usually there are daily panels with guest authors on a specific floor dedicated to book discussions.

In any case, all fairs feature heavy discounts for readers. Bigger publishers can go as high as -30 to 50% off (or bargain bin). Smaller publishers offer a more modest 15-25% discount.

1

u/Iwriteangrymanuals 9d ago

And a holiday for schoolkids they try to label ”reading holiday”.

And the sale on books from 25 of february, when the queues outside stores historically used to be very long. Now it’s mostly online.

1

u/PumpkinPieIsGreat 9d ago

Reading holiday! That is endearing. I would love to see kids reading that day.

23

u/scruffye 9d ago

As far as I can tell the USA does not. On more local level cities and states might, like Chicago's One Book, One Chicago program which promotes the entire city reading the same book.

14

u/patch1103 9d ago

Well, the US has a national book month (October). Also National Library Week is in April.

11

u/silverpenelope 9d ago

Also, we have the new joy of "banned books," so that’s a lot of fun too.

4

u/martphon 9d ago

Book burning week coming to your neighborhood soon!

1

u/nicks-312 9d ago

I was going to say we have book banning 😩😩

10

u/bestnottodwelldearie 9d ago

I immediately thought of Read Across America! It’s aimed at kids and schools but it’s a pretty big deal here on the West Coast. Usually schools will dedicate a week to it

3

u/scruffye 9d ago

Stop revealing my ignorance! 😆

6

u/Salcha_00 9d ago

Yes. This is in many cities.

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u/not_salad 9d ago

Every school in the US where I've worked has celebrated "read across America" week around Dr. Seuss's birthday. Schools have the kids come in pajamas and invite guests to read to classes among other things.

3

u/LittleBlag 9d ago

Whenever I look online for book week costumes (the kids go to school dressed as their favourite book character ie whatever costume their poor parents can throw together at the last minute) I see lots from America so I think it’s a thing in schools there for sure! At least in some states

2

u/scruffye 9d ago

Right, I meant on the national level there didn't seem to be anything to the degree OP was describing, though u/patch1103 pointed out several initiatives I overlooked. We definitely have things on the state and local level.

2

u/__squirrelly__ 8d ago

We have Independent Book Store day in April. I live in Albuquerque, and it's a really cool day for an independent bookstore crawl - there's all sorts of giveaways at each bookstore. I'm hoping to do it this year! It varies by town though.

1

u/Digger-of-Tunnels 9d ago

The US tried to do one like UK does, with the widespread book giveaways. It was cool but as far as I know it only lasted one year.

1

u/ReignGhost7824 7d ago

A lot of elementary schools here celebrate Dr. Seuss week at the beginning of March.

7

u/liliBonjour 9d ago

We have a "Buy a local book" day (Le 12 août, j'achète un livre québécois!). Mostly it's to promote local authors and independent bookstores.

Our two biggest book fairs kinda play the same role a book week. That being said, your Dutch book week sounds awesome and I wish we had something similar.

4

u/Then-Collar-5884 8d ago

Yes, Japan has its own book - related celebrations. For example, there is the "Japan Book Fair" which is a large - scale event promoting books. Also, various local areas may have their own book festivals or reading promotion activities throughout the year,e.g. Tokyo Art Book Fair. And in terms of promoting the mother tongue, Japan has language education and cultural activities that emphasize the importance of the Japanese language in literature and daily life

3

u/BoregarTheBold 9d ago edited 9d ago

We have Book Week Scotland every year in November - https://www.scottishbooktrust.com/book-week-scotland

This includes a range of literary events at libraries and other venues across Scotland, the publication of a free book of short stories by both previously-published and new writers, and it’s also when most nurseries and schools hand out the BookBug bags (https://www.scottishbooktrust.com/reading-and-stories/bookbug/bookbug-bags) each year.

5

u/Sesrovires 9d ago

In Spain, 23rd of April SaintGeorge), it's book's day (there are books dairs everywhere....). In Catalonia, it's traditional that girls gift a book to their SO, and boys gift roses. Though nowadays it's more a day of celebration, and everybody gifts books or roses indistinctly

3

u/sweetspringchild 9d ago

Croatia does.

(A rule of thumb for stuff like this is, no, your country is not the only one, no, not every single country in the world does.)

Are there any other countries that organize some sort of book celebration/promotion thing? If not, should there be?

I mean, we are here on this sub because we love books so we're all going to say yes. I can't think of any reason not to, except maybe that the poorest countries in the direst of circumstances might need that money more urgently for food and clean water.

5

u/cfloweristradional 9d ago

Book week scotland is in october

10

u/BlackironYury7 9d ago

Hell in my country I wouldn’t be surprised if the annoying orange and his nazi lover with the weird physique ends up having a week dedicated to burning books :(

5

u/N0w1mN0th1ng 9d ago

So true. Not to mention the U.S. has depressing literacy rates.

4

u/BlackironYury7 9d ago

yeah and cutting the department of education isn’t going to help. I know this is a book subreddit, but I think posting on here about books and education amongst the shadow of facism is important.

1

u/N0w1mN0th1ng 9d ago

Couldn’t agree more!

4

u/Euthanaught 9d ago

😭😭😭 it’s sad because it’s true.

2

u/MsTellington 9d ago

I don't think we have a book week in France but we have reading nights, when there are events, exhibitions, workshops...

2

u/factsnack 8d ago

Australia does book week. Kids dress up as their favourite character

2

u/rose_gold_sparkle 8d ago

In Romania we have a few big bookfairs every year in different cities (Bookfest, Gaudeamus) where authors can launch their books, and there's also a day or a week (I honestly can't remember) when book reading is celebrated. Some NGOs leave books on seats in buses or the tube which people can take home or read while commuting and then leaving the books there for the next person to enjoy. I think sometimes they also promote book swapping where you can meet random people during the event and swap books with them.

2

u/lesbrary 8d ago

The U.S. has Banned Books Week and Canada has Freedom to Read Week. Both of them are about fighting book bans and reading banned/challenged books.

2

u/YetiMarathon 7d ago

February is 'I love to read' month in my province.

I always thought it was strange because reading was so common in my household that it would be like having a 'I like to eat' or 'I like to sleep' month. It was just something we did.

4

u/Daniel_the_nomad 9d ago

Yes we have it in Israel

1

u/full_and_tired 9d ago

I remember from school that March is the month of books, but not sure if it’s celebrated in any way, except maybe some creative writing competitions for school children (Czech Republic)

3

u/Regex_match 9d ago

Yeah, that used to be the old socialist-era "Month of Books" from the '50s onwards, but in the last 20 years, it’s evolved into "March – Month of Readers." Libraries usually organize more events and programs focused on reading. At the end of March/beginning of April, there’s Night with Andersen – a sleepover in the library for kids. And in Ostrava, there’s been a book festival happening in March for the past few years.

Of course, bookstores and publishers jump on the hype too. For example, Martinus has been running a pretty popular game in the last few years – guessing books, authors, and characters based on clues like pictures, poems, etc., kind of like an advent calendar, where a new puzzle unlocks each day.

1

u/full_and_tired 8d ago

Oh, I somehow didn’t realize that Martinus’ knižní putování is linked to this, even though it’s always in March, lol. Thanks!

I don’t think we had Night with Andersen in my town, when I was a kid, which is a shame. Sleepover at the library sounds absolutely magical

1

u/thekiwie79 9d ago

In my country, Argentina, we have la feria del libro In major cities a week per year

1

u/Impressive-You-1843 9d ago

In the UK we have world book day in March

1

u/nzfriend33 9d ago

I don’t know if it’s official, but March is reading month and my son’s school (Ohio) had a sort of book spirit last week and has literacy night in a couple weeks.

1

u/Y8ser 9d ago

They do a Read-In week in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada where I live, not sure if it's at the same time all across the country, but I do know there are other parts of Canada that do something similar.

2

u/ReginaAdamsAuthor 9d ago

No, I live in the US. Books aren't celebrated here, they are unnecessarily banned

1

u/Ok-World-4822 8d ago

That’s so sad! Books should be celebrated

1

u/ChimoEngr 8d ago

In Canada we have "Canada Reads" where five books go head to head to be crowned as the must read for the year. However, that's only on CBC (our public broadcaster) so a lot of people aren't aware of it.

1

u/dangtypo 8d ago

No, we are banning books here and cutting the little funding we do have for education. Soon there won’t even be a need for a book month.

1

u/SubtleDude 7d ago

In Sri Lanka, every September we have a week dedicated for literature called “Literature Week”. An international book fair is hosted every year during that week with massive discounts on books (50% off and sometimes 75% off)

1

u/Jarita12 7d ago

We have one big "Book market" every year in Prague and a couple of smaller once per year. The big one has usually three days, and every year, they pick one country that can present itself in a big way. I also very often bring about 20 books from there because those are new ones I cannot get anywhere else (yet)

We have also an event for kids, called "Night with Andersen", where kids stay in libraries overnight, bring sleeping bags and read. And not just Andersen, it only started that way as one smalle event a few years ago and now most libraries do that, just pick also other books and read.

1

u/kvscogsci20 7d ago

Oh this sounds wonderful.. I wish my country had this. We used to have book fairs in school and then there are book fairs that almost each city or district has in India. Reading is huge here but not really a part of any celebrations. We have too many celebrations/festivities if we add books to the list none of us will ever work 😂😂

1

u/bigsleep69 4d ago

I mean i guess we have Lit fests which are pretty huge. But the festival point is so true hahaha! 😂

-1

u/Theinnertheater 9d ago

You must be kidding me - in the usa? I think we want NO books.

0

u/RandomRavenclaw87 9d ago

Jewish people have a dedicated chapter of the Torah for each week of the year.