
Leif Enger ran into trouble when he and his wife, Robin, split up to hand out copies of "A Prayer for Owen Meany" on World Book Night. Robin had no problem at all getting rid of her stack of books, but people on the streets of Aitkin eyed Leif suspiciously. (Things went better when Robin rejoined him.) They distributed the last of their 20 books, Enger said, at a park where weary moms watched toddlers play. The moms were as happy to get a book, he said, as they were to talk to another adult.

Kate DiCamillo had similar difficulties, approaching people at sidewalk tables along Grand Avenue in St. Paul. Some just said, No. One man said, Yeah, World Book Night, I've heard of that. What do you have?
She had Buzz Bissinger's "Friday Night Lights." No thanks, the guy said. I've already read that. What else do you have? Do you have Tim O'Brien's 'The Things They Carried'?
Um, I have "Friday Night Lights," Kate said. (That's how World Book Night works. There were 30 titles given away across the country, but each volunteer got 20 copies of a single title to distribute at random.)
DiCamillo's "Because of Winn-Dixie," and Enger's "Peace Like a River" were among those titles. The authors met up at Magers & Quinn in Minneapolis on Monday night to talk about books, writing, and World Book Night to a crowd of about 100 people celebrating the giveaways. Some in the crowd talked about their own experiences distributing books. Earlier in the day, DiCamillo autographed free copies of "Winn-Dixie" at Common Good Books in St. Paul, for schoolchildren.

Across the country, a half-million books were given out by some 20,000 volunteers. World Book Night began last year in the UK and Ireland, and this year spread to the US and Germany. Social media played a big role, with volunteers blogging, tweeting, Storifying, Pinteresting (is that a word?), and Facebooking (is that?) throughout the day.
Some local reports from the World Book Night Minnesota Facebook page:
Lisa Braun Dubbels: All of my copies of I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS have been handed out at The Bridge for Youth, Simpson Church shelter, and the COOL Youth program at Calvary Church.