On April 23 rd, World Book Day is celebrated all over the world. In Spain this is a day to encourage reading and the enjoyment of literature in a different way. It is also a day on which the great universal writer Miguel de Cervantes is particularly remembered with the presentation of the prize which bears his name, the most important distinction in Spanish letters.
Cervantes' masterpiece, 'Don Quixote of La Mancha', is also a protagonist of World Book Day. Every year, in the Column Room at the Círculo de Bellas Artes academy in Madrid, there is a non-stop reading of the novel: this involves 48 hours of uninterrupted reading by figures from the world of culture and politics, as well as an anonymous citizens.
In Catalonia the day coincides with the popular festivity of Sant Jordi. According to tradition, on this day it is customary to give the gift of a book to men and a rose to women. Thus cities like Barcelona become transformed into an enormous open-air bookshop-florist's, full of stalls with authors signing copies of their work.
