April 23 is World Book Day! “Reading is useful!” (C) BookMix.ru

I think that very few people now know that right after the birthday of the leader of the world proletariat is an equally important date. After all, April 23 is a symbolic day for world literature - World Book and Copyright Day . The date was marked mainly by not too joyful events for world literature, since in 1616 W. Shakespeare, M. Cervantes, Inca Garcilaso de la Vega died on this day. It is also the birthday or death of such famous authors as Maurice Druon, X. Laxness and Manuel Mejia Vallejo.

In 1995, in Paris, the UNESCO General Conference decided to pay tribute to books and authors on this day, urging everyone, especially young people, to enjoy reading and respect the indispensable contribution of those who contributed to the social and cultural progress of mankind.

A little history behind, now about the essence ... What to do? (with)

What is happening in the world of literature in recent times:

• Russians began to read less books, and 35% of respondents do not read them at all .
• The largest Russian publishing houses are winding up all projects designed for teenagers, since reading is no longer interesting for them .
• Following the example of the Russians, the Ukrainians also stop reading .
• What are the successes of the cultural capital? Approximately such - a third of St. Petersburg residents do not read fiction . Although the newspapers have not stopped reading and that is good :)
• After 10 years, a library crisis may occur in Russia, the optimistic minister of culture believes.
• The future of Russian literature - comics? ( Opinion of Boris Strugatsky and Ilya Stogov ).

Meanwhile:

• Arguing about whether it is time to bury a paper book ?
• And Japan already has an e-book publisher association.

But there are positive moments, for example:

• Canadian artist has released a pornographic book for the blind .
• A Vladimir Putin himself enrolled in the Tyumen library !

When asked what your favorite book is, the majority of Russians answered ... drumming ... I am sure that if you do not think and quickly answer, you will guess the answer :)
So, the favorite book of Russians .
')
And yours?

Actually, what is it all about? I just want to once again bring to the long-known, but slightly lost concepts that the book is:

• a storehouse of knowledge;
• life textbook;
• man's best friend;
• reason to talk;
• best gift...

And not just:

• media, usually in the form of stitched sheets of paper;
• non-periodic text book edition of more than 48 pages.

I would like to hear from habrovchan answers to questions:
1) What is a book for you?
2) What is fiction for you today?
3) Are you among those who regularly read fiction now or limited to only the school curriculum?
4) When was the last time you were holding a paper book?

And I also want to convey the following information to All, although a bit of advertising, but I hope that it is of a very useful nature:
The project BookMix.ru , which was already discussed at Habré , for a not very long time of its existence has grown into a fairly decent service for creating its own database of read books and books that you want to read. Reviews, ratings, many services help to navigate in a huge number of books, the number of which in the database has already exceeded 300 thousand and choose for themselves something really interesting, not being afraid to make a mistake in choosing.


The mission of the project remains the same: “Reading is useful!” And the creators very much hope that the habrovans will support the good goal and convey to the masses the information about the project, where you can culturally sit, talk and have a good time in the world of books.

I hope that this article will help many people remember that everything is not limited to technical literature and sometimes you can pass the evening in a comfortable chair after re-reading, for example, “Dunno” or “The Wizard of the Emerald City”, because in adulthood this classic is already perceived otherwise :)

After all, not everyone is still quit reading? Is not it?