British booksellers celebrated "World Book Night" on Saturday March 5th, in which free books were handed out in public places. Of course, several booksellers were "horrified" about this "misguided" plan, accusing organizers of "devaluing" books by giving them away for free. Those booksellers were wrong:

Sales of one giveaway book, "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" by Muriel Spark, went up 63% between January and February. Other books that were given away for free that saw sales rise include Margaret Atwood's "The Blind Assassin," "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" by Mohsin Hamed, Alan Bennett's "A Life Like Other People's" and "Cloud Atlas" by David Mitchell.

What's more, the giveaway seems to have a sales tail. Three books that were given away last year have seen sales rise in the triple digits since February 2010: Nigel Slater's "Toast" climbed by 367%, John le Carré's "The Spy Who Came In From the Cold" rose by 106% and Seamus Heaney's "New Selected Poems" went up 102%.

Why don't we make World Book Night an actual global event next year? Independent booksellers have a huge organization that they pay dues to; the ABA should be taking the lead on initiatives like this that highlight the sheer joy of reading books as well as celebrating books as physical objects to be desired.