World Book Day falls on April 23rd every year. It was set up by the UNESCO in 1955 to encourage people to discover the pleasure of reading. This year, the Southeast University libeary sent a sepcial letter to every reader on campus and delievered a piece of "surprising" news! In order to encourage reading, they will exempt all your overdue fine if you borrow books in this week. In addition, when you borrow books on April 23rd, you will get a rose flower from the reception desk.
Quite a number of students were waiting in the queue, for borrowing books, and for getting the beautiful flowers.This week is known as "Reading Festivival" in SEU. The vice president of SEU and some teachers attended the opening ceremony of the festival and reconmmanded their favoriate books to student readers. The theme for the Reading Festival in this year is "Reading Changes The Future".
World Book Day is an important date for literature around the world. It was also on this date that the writers William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes died (both on the same day in 1616) and, somewhat later, the birth date of novelists including the Russian-born Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977) and the Icelandic Nobel Prize laureate Halldór Laxness (1902–1998).