Perfectly timed for this week’s RobAroundBookLists feature, is today’s news that the short list for Spread The Word 2009 has been announced. Comprised of the top ten contemporary ‘word of mouth’ titles as chosen by the voting public, the Spread the Word 2009 short list is a great list for taking reading suggestions from, not least because it’s the ‘product’ of a long process of selection and rejection making it a bit Crème de la Crème, and here’s how:
The short list was drawn from an initial long list of fifty (well worth looking at too), put together by the Uk & Ireland World Book Day team from many suggestions offered by book publishers. However the suggestions were not randomly offered. The World Book Day team had asked publishers only to suggest titles that they thought were deserved of reaching a wider readership, ones that contained good subjects for discussion and offered more food for thought than entertainment. From these suggestions the World Book Day team made their final selection of fifty, which were put to the public vote to select the final shortlist of ten.
With the short list announced, public voting now resumes again in order to select a single overall winner from the shortlist, and this winner will be announced on the the UK & Ireland’s World Book Day 2009 – Thursday 5th March (note: the traditional World Book Day for most participating countries is April 23rd). So if you’ve a favourite lurking among the short list titles, now would be a good time to declare it, although free registration is required.
*World Book Day is a UNESCO designated event, marked by over 100 countries, to encourage reading around the world.
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