Free Books Distributed to Youth in Buenos Aires to Promote Reading

Starting Wednesday, the Fondo de Cultura Económica (FCE) bookstore at Costa Rica 4568 in Buenos Aires will give away free books from its "25 para el 25" collection to adolescents and young adults aged 15 to 30. This campaign, conceived by FCE authorities, aims to foster reading by distributing 2.5 million free copies throughout Latin America.

The initiative is being coordinated through FCE bookstores and supporting institutions and governments. In Argentina, it has the backing of the Cultural Institute of the Province of Buenos Aires. The first fifty young people in line on Wednesday will receive five free books from the collection. Subsequently, one book per person will be distributed randomly until stock is depleted, during the bookstore's regular hours.

This new phase expands the initial selection, which featured works by authors like Juan Gelman, Gabriel García Márquez, and Juan Carlos Onetti. The updated collection includes a broader range of genres beyond poetry, narrative, and essay, incorporating testimonials, political memoirs, indigenous literature, and experimental works.

New titles include "Canto villano" by Peruvian poet Blanca Varela, "La muerte de Tyrone Power en el monumental de Barcelona" by Ecuadorian writer Miguel Donoso Pareja, and "El vaso de leche y otras historias" by Chilean Manuel Rojas. The campaign also features works by Venezuelan Luis Britto García, Salvadoran Roque Dalton, Colombian Piedad Bonnett, Guatemalan Miguel Ángel Asturias, Mexican Guadalupe Dueñas, Peruvian José María Arguedas, Mexican Fabrizio Mejía Madrid, Colombian Andrés Caicedo, Nicaraguan Sergio Ramírez, Argentine Eduardo Rosenzvaig, Chilean Raúl Zurita, and Cuban Roberto Fernández Retamar.