Reading Around The World

Photo by George Henton/Al Jazeera

Our Reading Revolution has started to go global, and it's time to round off the week in reading with a couple of reading related stories from around the world.

In Turkey, a real Reading Revolution is emerging amidst scenes of unrest - the Taksim Square Book Club has formed, thanks to the example of the 'Standing Man' a.k.a. Turkish performance artist Erdem Gunduz, who stood silently, hands in pockets, for eight hours. People have taken this stance and merged it with the reading and informational activities active since the earliest days of the Taksim Square protests to adopt a new form of reading resistance. The book choices  - including Nineteen Eighty Four by George Orwell, Leaf Storm by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and The Myth of Sisyphus by French author Albert Camus - reflect the feelings and attitudes of those protesting, coming as a great show of quiet contemplation coupled with social awareness and a desire to change.

Read more and see pictures from the Taksim Square Book Club on Book Patrol and Al Jazeera.

Over in Colombia, schoolteacher Luis Soriano has become a reading hero, along with his two donkeys, Alfa and Beto. Together they make up the Biblioburro - a travelling library which brings books far and wide, into some of the poorest rural villages of the Magdalena Department. Biblioburro has been operating since 1990, when Luis was inspired to set it up after witnessing the power literature had on his students, many who had experienced conflict at an early age. Starting with 70 books, Biblioburro now has a selection of 4,200 titles, housed in a free library that Luis and his wife Diana built next to their home. Only three volumes have gone missing from Bibiloburro in all this time - and it continues to receive donations from all four corners of the world.

Find out more about Biblioburro - if you speak Spanish! - on the Biblioburro Facebook page.

Do you know of any other incredible literature projects from around the world? We'd love to hear about them - leave a comment, Tweet or Facebook us.