The Day is a celebration to promote the enjoyment of books and reading. Each year, on 23 April, celebrations take place all over the world to recognize the scope of books – a link between the past and the future, a bridge between generations and across cultures. On this occasion, UNESCO and the international organizations representing the three major sectors of the book industry – publishers, booksellers and libraries, select the World Book Capital for a year to maintain, through its own initiatives, the impetus of the Day’s celebrations.
23 April is a symbolic date in world literature. It is the date on which several prominent authors, William Shakespeare, Miguel Cervantes and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega all died. This date was a natural choice for UNESCO’s General Conference, held in Paris in 1995, to pay a world-wide tribute to books and authors on this date, encouraging everyone to access books.
By championing books and copyright, UNESCO stands up for creativity, diversity and equal access to knowledge, with the work across the board – from the Creative Cities of Literature network to promoting literacy and mobile learning and advancing Open Access to scientific knowledge and educational resources. With the active involvement of all stakeholders: authors, publishers, teachers, librarians, public and private institutions, humanitarian NGOs and the mass media, and all those who feel motivated to work together in this world celebration of books and authors, World Book and Copyright Day has become a platform to rally together millions of people all around the world.
The Day at AZIMVTH
At AZIMVTH Ashram, the April programme celebrates several enents, and one of them is the World Book Day. 23 April is also celebrated as the UN English Language Day and the UN Spanish language Day. More information on events in April are here.
On 23 April 2019, AZIMVTH carried a flash activity. The medium used was WhatsApp, a mobile phone application. People were asked to open page number 42 of the book they happen to be reading or of any book lying closest to them. They were invited to contribute by writing the first 3 lines on this page. Few dozen persons contributed by sending image of page number 42, image of the cover of the book, the title and the name of the author.
A curated set of 19 entries have been used to devise a puzzle. The curation was done not keeping in mind any particular theme but focusing on having a diverse set of books.
Matching Columns Puzzle
A fun puzzle has been created. 19 different excerpts from as many books are copied in one column. Against each excerpt, a name of the 19 books and relevant author has been written randomly in the next column. To solve the puzzle, a participant can match the right book/author with an excerpt.
The 19 entries are listed in 2 pages as shown below.
These 2 images are also available in a pdf file (781 kb) of 2 pages Draft – Jumbled – World Book Day 2019.
Clues
The adjoining photo–gallery titled “World Book Day 2019 @ AZIMVTH – page 42 book excerpts” contain images of the page number 42 of these books. Reading these may help in solving the puzzle.
The Contributors to this collaborative puzzle come from various walks of life – published authors themselves, commercial airlines pilot, medical doctor, nutritionist, educationist etc.
Participate
To participate with this puzzle project, anyone can try matching the entries of the column containing book-excerpts with the relevant entries in the column containing the title of the book and the name of the author. Participants may send their entries using the form given below.
The default answer is –
1-A, 2-B, 3-C, 4-D, 5-C, 6-E, 7-F, 8-G, 9-H, 10-I
11-J, 12-K, 13-L, 14-M, 15-N, 16-O, 17-P, 18-Q, 19-R
If a participant thinks that the book-excerpt number 1 is from the book having title as in B (instead of A), then she may write 1-B, and so on. These answers can be written in the field number 7.
Participation-form for the AZIMVTH World-Book-Day 2019 Puzzle
Featuring
Two kinds of entries could get featured on this website. The information (excepting the e-mail id, mobile number, and web-address) that is provided via the participation-form may appear here in public-domain.
- Entries having 10 or more correct answers plus a comment on any 1 book-excerpt
- Entries containing 5 or more correct answer plus comments on any 2 book-excerpts
- Entries containing 1 or more correct answers plus comments on any 3 book-excerpts.
More on Creative Writing
AZIMVTH are involved with a variety of projects based on creative-writing. Following weblinks contain more information.
- Spiritual memoirs – click here
- Pilgrims of the Inner Worlds – click here
- Let’s Write a Love-letter. To a Stranger! – click here
AZIMVTH Ashram 