World Book Night

World Book Day was kicked off in style last night, with the likes of Margaret Atwood, Alan Bennett, Phillip Pullman and John Le Carré gathered in Trafalgar Square to read extracts from their fiction. It was a bit like a Glastonbury for book-lovers, but freezing and with Boris Johnson there, too.

The event marked the eve of World Book Day, which is celebrating the pleasures of reading by giving away around one million books from a list of 25 titles. And when I arrived I was delighted to get my hands on a copy of David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas and Toni Morrisons’ Beloved, two books I’ve been desperate to read for ages.

In just two hours we visited Highgate Cemetery, a Yorkshire hospital, the Deep South and Cold War Berlin; experienced a hideous hangover, got seduced, were shot at, and travelled back and forth through time, as each author read their five-minute piece.

At several points I was transported away from the biting wind and forgot my cold, purple fingers. But David Nicholls’ lively extract from his book One Day, which raised the most laughs of the evening, was among the standout performances. As was Alan Bennett’s reading, whose dulcet Yorkshire vowels drifted across the crowd to deliver a poignant account of his infirm mother from A Life Like Other People’s.

Non-authors also joined in with extracts from their favourite works, such as the brilliantly dark rocker Nick Cave who read from Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita, Madness’s Suggs who read a John Betjeman poem, while Boris picked Kingsley Amis’ Lucky Jim. It was a timely reminder of the powerful impact books have in shaping and influencing you as an individual – as each choice somehow seemed appropriate to the reader in question.

I say timely, because there was also a distinct tone of anger at government plans to close libraries. ‘Closing libraries is child abuse,’ shouted Alan Bennett as he left the stage. Mark Haddon, author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, also appeared to agree, praising the idea giving away free books in our austere age where the only thing that seems to matter is money. ‘Books are little empathy engines,’ he said.

So with that very spirit of sharing in mind, I had no choice but to answer ‘Cloud Atlas,’ when a woman in the crowd pointed at my hand and asked what book I was giving away. ‘When I’m finished I’ll send it to my sister in New Zealand, so don’t worry it’ll definitely get passed on,’ she said cheerily as I handed over my recently acquired tome.

Perhaps the biggest impression of the night was the realisation that the solitary exercise of reading is an incredibly sociable activity. Partly because the evening ended with a long chat in the pub about all the books we’d read mentioned on the list. But also because of the way it connects you to other people, times and places – ultimately making you feel less alone.

World Book Day’s idea of giving away books seems a fantastic tribute to this notion. That said, I’m not letting go of Beloved until I’ve read it,  then you’ll be welcome to it!

World Book Night took place on Friday 4 March in London