World Book Night USA Suspended

I'm quite saddened to learn that World Book Night USA has been suspended after 3 years due to financial reasons. 

I love reading books and am passionate about sharing my love of reading books with others. The past 3 years, I've been a World Book Night book giver within my own community. And each year, I've had a blast handing out copies of free books to other people and encouraging them to read the book I'm passing out during that particular year. There's nothing more exciting than spreading the love of reading person to person. Especially, if the person you're giving a book to can see how passionate about the book you're giving them that they can't wait to start reading it themselves. I actually saw one of the people I gave a World Book Night Book to this year, sit down and start reading the book right away... How cool was that!?!?

So, needless to say, I was looking forward to applying and becoming a World Book Night book giver once again in 2015. World Book Night is such an awesome program. Too bad it is coming to an end here in the USA!

Checkout the following article from the USA Today website titled, Book Buzz: World Book Night suspended for lack of funds by Bob Minzesheimer! I learned the following information:

The non-profit program, modeled on a British Book Night, enlisted more than 25,000 volunteers each spring to give away more than 500,000 copies of specially printed paperbacks of about 30 different titles. 

It was aimed at people who did not have much access to books. Volunteers gave away books in health clinics, jails, parks and in low-income neighborhoods. Its motto was "Spreading the love of reading. person to person." 

In a statement, the program's executive director, Carl Lennertz, said, "This has been a remarkable, passionate undertaking, and it has been a success by all measures, except for one: Outside funding."

For three years, he added, "the publishing industry and book community have very generously footed the bill and contributed enormous time and effort … We had hoped to have more success with grant requests. But there are a lot of other worthy causes out there and only so much money available. Unfortunately, we can't carry on without significant new outside funding."

Click on the link above to read the full story!