As a book lover, your love affair is likely to have started when you were a little kid, or when you started to go to college. Most bibliophiles are in love with specific characters, or tend to imagine scenes in their heads while reading books. On World Book Day, celebrated on April 23 every year, awareness with respect to reading, publishing challenges and copyright issues are spoken about.
Interestingly, the date has been chosen as per the birth and the death anniversary of William Shakespeare, and it was first commemorated in 1995. In 2020, and during the times of COVID-19, this day is being celebrated in different ways by publishing houses:
- Harper Collins India– Celebrations have gone digital here, with Instagram live sessions with several top Indian authors such as Boria Majumdar, Nalin Mehta, Ravinder Singh, Nikita Singh and Rana Safvi, along with others.
- Penguin Random House– This publishing house will launch Sudha Murthy’s How the Onion got its Layers on World Book Day, in audiobook and e-book formats. Additionally, Penguin Random House has announced collaboration with GEC Romedy Now.
- Hachette India– Top author Mitch Albom, best known for “The Five People you meet in Heaven” and “Tuesdays with Morrie” will be releasing a free serialized story called Human Touch, depicting the strange intersection of different lives during the Coronavirus pandemic. The story can be viewed on Mitch’s website.
Movies made on books
You may even decide to binge watch any of the following series on Amazon Prime or Netflix as a continuation of your appreciation of your favorite literature:
- Afsos– The love for your favourite Bengali book “Golper Goru Chaande” can be watched on Amazon Prime as a web series. A depressed man wishes to end his life but is unable to do so, and ends up hiring professional assassins for the job.
- Altered Carbon– A prisoner comes back to life in a new body and needs to solve a twister murder case for winning his freedom. This series has been devised as per a novel by Richard K. Morgan, a British author.
- Game of Thrones– Fans of the Game of Thrones would know that this drama is based on George RR Martin’s book series “A song of Ice and Fire”. Its first novel was called “Game of Thrones” and the first season was closely adapted from it.
- Malgudi Days– The Hindi family serial with this name was based on the book by RK Narayan. The simple, yet heart-warming stories take place in Malgudi, a fictitious town in South India.
- Sex and the City– This interesting drama series is the story of Carrie Bradshaw and her friends in New York. Running from 1998 to 2004, it was based on Candace Bushnell’s series of essays with the same name.
Now you have a number of items to occupy you on World Book Day. You may even choose to extract online copies of your favourite novels.
