April 23rd, World Book Day: Quijote Reading and Cervantes Award.

Today is a very special day; In a day like today in 1616 two great writers, William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes died. A sad and terrible event, of course the 23d of April turned into a universal symbol of respect and passion for literature .

To honour these two symbolic writers, the 23d of April got to be known as The Day of The Book and in all of Spain there are several representatives acts related with literature, like for example reading 'Don Quijote' by Cervantes or the ceremony for the 'Premio Miguel de Cervantes' .

The reading of the 'Don Quijote' is performed without interruptions throughout the day in all of Spain and thanks to the new technologies,anyone can follow it from anywhere in the world.

The Premio Miguel de Cervantes is the highest award of the Spanish literature and will be entrusted in a cerimony that will take placein the Paraninfo of the Universidd de Alcalá de Henares in Madrid and that for the first time will be presided by the King and Queen of Spain, Felipe and Letizia, as monarchs.

This year, the award will go to the writer and essayist Juan Goytisolo . Is a writer globally known. Born in Barcelona in 1931, since a young age he lived in several places, now he lives in Marrakech. He's literary path is very vast and covers several literary styles , among his works we can find the book Señas de Indentidad and several reports dedicated to the wars in the 90s in Europe.

The 23d of April is also known as el Dia de st Jordi in Catalonia or St. Jeorge in Castilla y Leon a festive day for the inhabitats of these communities and they celebrate it in a very particular way. In Barcelona they give a rose to women and a book to men. And throughout the whole week there are many book fairs in every Spanish community. In Bilbao we host The International festival of Spanish literature that takes place in Azkuna Zentroa (La Alhondiga) and the newspaper El Correo gives you a book by Miguel de Unamuno.

We wish wish you a good Dia del Libro and we wish you good luck when choosing the book that will accompany you throughout these days.