UNESCO launched the idea of the World Book and Copyright Day in 1995 in order to “promote reading, publishing and the protection of intellectual property through copyright” (UNESCO 2012: online). The idea for celebrating this day came from Catalonia where, since 1436, on Saint George's Day or 'The Day of the Rose' – the 23rd April – the exchange of gifts between sweethearts, loved and respected ones was common practice. The first time books were exchanged in 'The Day of the Rose' was in 1926 to simultaneously commemorate the death of Cervantes and of Shakespeare.
After this huge success, UNESCO also put forth the idea for the World Book Capital City in 2001, nominating Madrid. 2012 is Yerevan’s turn, in Armenia, to do the honours. Check out their website: http://www.yerevan2012.org/, where you can find information on their activities for this year, their alphabet and the 500th anniversary of Armenian printing.
The 23rd April has then become a symbol for world literature, due to the fact that it is the date on which William Shakespeare (1563-1616), Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) and Inca Garcilano de la Vega (1539-1616) died back in 1616, and also Josep Pla, a Catalan journalist and a popular author, who died in 1981! Fate moves in mysterious ways… But fate was hungry for more: Maurice Druon (French novelist, 1918-2009), Halldór Laxness (Icelandic writer, 1902-1998), Vladimir Nabokov (multilingual Russian novelist, poet and short story writer 1899-1977), and Manuel Mejía Vallejo (a Colombian writer and journalist, 1923-1998) were born on this day. So it turned out to be the perfect choice for UNESCO to pay its tribute to world literature and the hidden pleasure of reading books.
Yes, reading books for pleasure, because, as Montesquieu said, “I have never known any distress that an hour's reading did not relieve.” Who has not felt troubles disappearing into thin air after a good read? But one needs books in order to study, to enlarge general knowledge, to be critical and tell everyone you don’t need them to think for you, because you do have an opinion, you are capable of discussing issues, you are uncontrollable.
In the words of Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO on the occasion of the World Book and Copyright Day, “[b]ooks are pillars for free and open societies” and thus we must protect them with all our might.
Last but not least, this year’s World Book and Copyright Day overlaps with the 80th anniversary of Index Translationum or the World Bibliography of Translation (http://www.unesco.org/xtrans/bsform.aspx), a database created by UNESCO in 1932, which now holds 2m entries in all disciplines: literature, social and human sciences, natural and exact sciences, art, history, among others.
Cláudia Martins
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