Abergavenny Library is among dozens of venues staging a special event in support of World Book night this year.

The celebration event tonight (Thursday April 21, 7pm) will have as guest speaker local author and historian Mr Frank Olding. Tickets are £3 to include a glass of wine - or two.

Two days later on April 23, UNESCO World Book and Copyright Day, Shakespeare’s birthday and also the 400th anniversary of his death, 187,500 copies of 15 specially printed World Book Night titles will be given away by a network of volunteer reading enthusiasts and institutions around the UK.

The aim is to reach the 36% of the population who don’t read for pleasure.

Since it began in 2011, World Book Night has created an extraordinary group of 56,000 volunteers, giving books away to over 2.25 million people.

From across Wales, 267 passionate book lovers, both individuals and organisations have already applied successfully to be World Book Night volunteers this year, having chosen one or more of the 15 World Book Night 2015 titles to share with people in their community who don’t normally read for pleasure or own books.

Institutions in Wales taking part in the book distribution include libraries, hospitals, prisons, colleges, schools and homeless shelters.

This year’s list of books covers a range of genres including crime, poetry, non-fiction, Quick Reads, historical and contemporary fiction, fantasy and memoir.

Appearing on the list are bestselling favourites from the leading lights of the literary scene, including Holly Bourne’s Am I Normal Yet?, Love Poems by Carol Ann Duffy, Matt Haig’s Reasons To Stay Alive, The Rotters’ Club by Jonathan Coe, Treachery by SJ Parris and Ann Cleeves’ Too Good To Be True.

As well as the World Book Night volunteers, people will also be encouraged to give their favourite book to someone in their community with special events taking place at libraries, community centres, prisons, hospitals and schools around the UK.

Jonathan Coe, author of World Book Night 2016 title The Rotters’ Club, said, “I’m delighted to be part of World Book Night 2016. Reading is the best possible way to foster imagination, empathy and mutual understanding, and never have those qualities been more needed than at the present time.”

The 15 titles for 2016 are:

Am I Normal Yet?, Holly Bourne (Usborne);

Band of Brothers, Stephen E Ambrose (Simon & Schuster);

I Can’t Begin to Tell You, Elizabeth Buchan (Michael Joseph);

Last Bus to Coffeeville, J. Paul Henderson (Oldcastle);

Love Poems, Carol Ann Duffy (Pan Macmillan);

Now You See Me, Sharon Bolton (Transworld);

Perfect Daughter, Amanda Prowse (Head of Zeus);

Reasons to Stay Alive, Matt Haig (Canongate);

Shadow and Bone, Leigh Bardugo (Hachette Children’s);

Someone Else’s Skin, Sarah Hilary (Headline);

The Baby at the Beach Café (Quick Read), Lucy Diamond (Pan Macmillan);

The Rotters’ Club, Jonathan Coe (Penguin General);

Too Good to be True (Quick Read), Ann Cleeves (Pan Macmillan);

Treachery, S. J. Parris (HarperCollins);

Whispering Shadows, Jan-Philipp Sendker (Birlinn).

The giver application process is now closed, but you can take part in World Book Night by giving a book of your own to someone in your community, and by following the event on worldbooknight.org.