The
World Book Night (now in its fourth year and coincides with the
UNESCO International Day of the Book) came and went, but did it impact our life in any way? In the UK, 20 titles were selected and thousands of those
books were given away for free on the night of
April 23 to inspire people who “haven’t yet been turned on” to reading. A quick look at the list had us pleasantly surprised. It included the works of
Agatha Christie,
Jeffrey Archer,
John Grisham,
Roald Dahl,
Andy McNab and others – mostly popular stuff that may actually drive reluctant readers back to the age-old habit of reading.
And that brings another startling fact to the forefront. If reading less is a global malady, men could be suffering more from it than their female counterparts. No, we are not getting gender-biased here. The findings came from a survey commissioned by the
Reading Agency and conducted by
OnePoll. According to the report, researchers from OnePoll spoke to 2,000 British men and
women ahead of the World Book Night and it was found that 75% of the men would watch the big screen version of a story, instead of reading the original book. In fact, 30% of the men said they had not read a book after their school days.
But in spite of all the statistics, reading does change one’s life. They say everyone can write at least one classic – their own life story. Surprisingly enough, we have one such book in our April list – the
posthumous collection of
essays and
short stories by a young
Yale graduate that has gone viral and read by at least 1.4 million people across 98 countries. That gives us great hope that books (in any format) will never become obsolete. Browse through our list of seven wonder works – analytical, inspirational,
sublime, but essentially a
journey towards a changing world order, a look into the changing times.
Image: Thinkstock/Getty Images
