THE JOY of reading is being celebrated with today’s World Book Day.

The aim of the day is to encourage more youngsters to read.

Book tokens will be given to children who take part so they can purchase £1 books from a special selected list of titles. At Weymouth’s Sea Life centre at 11am and 1pm there will be special readings of the much-loved children’s classic by Marcus Pfister read aloud in the Rainforest area, alongside a real live Rainbow Fish.

In Waterstone’s in Dorchester there will be a special Where’s Wally Colouring Challenge. The event will run from 9am to 4.45pm with a host of colouring fun and books on offer for World Book Day tokens.

Across Dorset hundreds of school children will dress up as their favourite book characters to celebrate.

Last year we were inundated with images from readers of mini Where's Wallys, oompa loompas, Cruella de Vils and Harry Potters as they took part in the event. We'd love to see your pictures again.

You can email them and details of any events to newsdesk@dorsetecho.co.uk and tweet us @Dorsetecho.

According to librarything.com the top ten books every adult should read are:

  1. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
  2. The Bible
  3. The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
  4. 1984 by George Orwell
  5. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
  6. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
  7. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
  8. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
  9. Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks T
  10. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

 

Here is tes.com’s list of the top ten books every student should reads before they leave school:

1. 1984 by George Orwell

2. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

3. Animal Farm by George Orwell

4. Lord of the Flies by William Golding

5. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

6. The Harry Potter Series by JK Rowling

7. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

8. The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger

9. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

10. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

 

So what are the Echo team reading this world book day?

Deputy Editor Samantha Harman – 1984

Deputy Head of News - Pies and Prejudice

Features writer Joanna Davis – A Spool of Blue Thread

Trainee features writer – Jess Rees – Bill Bryson’s Notes from a Small Island

Reporters: Meghan Hindley – Philomena

Catherine Bolado – Dune

Rachel Stretton - The Red Tent

Tom Beasley- The Crabchurch Conspiracy

George Smith- Chekhov’s short stories

Bridport team: David Bol – The Girl in the Spider’s Web

Rene Gerryts - The Silvered Heart

Dorchester team: Harry Hogger - The House of Lancaster: How England Rugby was Reinvented

Alex Peace - Dictator from the Cicero Trilogy