World Book Night takes on a masculine air in 2014, with male authors – by a ratio of three to one – dominating the books selected for a mass give-away aimed at reluctant readers.
Fifteen male authors appear on a list of 20 novels designed for male readers featuring John Boyne's holocaust novel The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas alongside Martin Cruz Smith's classic Cold War thriller Gorky Park.
The organisers of World Book Night, which will take place on 23 April next year, said the focus of the list was a response to research revealing that 46% of teenagers and young adults, and 42% of men, did not read for pleasure. A recent survey found that men who never read for pleasure outnumber women by more than two to one.
Four of the titles are Quick Reads – a series of story-length novels designed to appeal to reluctant readers. The list also features five books for young adults, two short-story collections and three works of non-fiction.
Among the non-fiction titles are Sathnam Sanghera's memoir of his Sikh childhood in Wolverhampton, The Boy with the Topknot, Richard Wiseman's critique of the self-help industry, 59 Seconds, and Benjamin Daniels' Confessions of a GP.
The scheme was set up in 2011 as an independent charity, but has been taken over by the Reading Agency. Last month it announced that it was halving the number of free books given away by official volunteers to 250,000, but was appealing for community volunteers to make up the numbers by giving away their own books. World Book Night stickers or bookplates will be available from libraries and participating bookshops or to download at home.
Miranda McKearney, CEO of the Reading Agency, says: "Please join us! We're looking for an army of volunteers to help tackle the UK's literacy problems – volunteers who will go out into the community on World Book Night, aiming to inspire the 35% of people who don't like reading to think again."
The titles for World Book Night 2014
1.Hello Mum by Bernardine Evaristo (Quick Read) (Penguin General)
2.Four Warned by Jeffrey Archer (Quick Read) (Macmillan)
3.A Perfect Murder by Peter James (Quick Read) (Macmillan)
4.Today Everything Changes by Andy McNab (Quick Read) (Transworld)
5.Short Stories by Roald Dahl (Penguin Michael Joseph)
6.CHERUB: The Recruit by Robert Muchamore (Hachette Children's)
7.Theodore Boone by John Grisham (Hodder & Stoughton)
8.The Humans by Matt Haig (Canongate)
9.The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne (Vintage, Random House)
10.Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith (Simon and Schuster)
11.Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin (Transworld)
12.Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch (Orion)
13.After the Funeral by Agatha Christie (HarperCollins)
14.Whatever it Takes by Adele Parks (Headline)
15.Geezer Girls by Dreda Say Mitchell (Hodder & Stoughton)
16.Black Hills by Nora Roberts (Little, Brown)
17.Getting Rid of Matthew by Jane Fallon (Penguin Michael Joseph)
18.The Boy With the Topknot by Sathnam Sanghera (Penguin General)
19.59 Seconds by Richard Wiseman (Macmillan)
20.Confessions of a GP by Dr Benjamin Daniels (The Friday Project, Harper Collins)
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