Emmadogs, I know there is a committee at WBN HQ that selects the books. They are publishers, editors, and other muckety mucks in the book world who go through the titles nominated by publishers and others -- including yours truly, who slyly nominated books by local authors Danielle Sosin and Margi Preus. They try to have a variety of books for a diverse readership, so you have some recent bestsellers, as well as the classics.

As for where books are given out, and how the Twin Ports region fits into the goal of giving books to underserved populations... yes, we have libraries, we have bookstores here, but some people, believe it or not, don't visit libraries or bookstores for whatever reason -- perhaps, intimidation? Lack of access, meaning being able to get there? People who may not have a permanent address? People who just haven't been bitten by the book bug? There's lots of reasons. 

I think one of the big points of this venture is that when a stranger walks up to someone and hands them a free book, and then talks up that book, this enthusiasm will in turn inspire the recipient to want to read the book, and then read some more books, and so on. And, best part of all, the book belongs to that person. 

Emmadogs, I urge you to apply. I went out of my comfort zone last year, handing out books in bars, and I am really glad I did. I learned a lot about the power of books to bring strangers together. It was a great experience.

I hope this answers your questions.

Dude, I don't care what you call it, as long as you either give away 20 copies of a book you love, or else receive a book from a book giver without making them feel like a crazy person!

Cute, though, Whirled Book Night...

The titles selected for World Book Night 2013 are:

The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood (Anchor Books/Random House)
City of Thieves, David Benioff (Plume/Penguin Book Group)
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury (Simon & Schuster Paperbacks)
My Antonia, Willa Cather (public domain; edition tbd)
Girl with a Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier (Plume/Penguin Book Group)
The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros (Vintage/Random House) - also in Spanish
The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho (HarperOne/HarperCollins) - also in Spanish
The Language of Flowers, Vanessa Diffenbaugh (Ballantine Books/Random House) 
The Worst Hard Time, Timothy Egan (Mariner Books/HoughtonMifflinHarcourt) 
Bossypants, Tina Fey (Regan Arthur/Back Bay Books)
Still Alice, Lisa Genova (Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster)
Looking for Alaska, John Green (Speak/Penguin Book Group) 
Playing for Pizza, John Grisham (Dell/Random House) 
Mudbound, Hillary Jordan (Algonquin Books/Workman Publishing) 
The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster (Yearling/Random House)
Moneyball, Michael Lewis (W.W. Norton)
The Tender Bar, J.R. Moehringer (Hyperion)
Devil in a Blue Dress, Walter Mosley (Washington Square Press/Simon & Schuster)
Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life, James Patterson (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers) 
Population: 485, Michael Perry (HarperPerennial/HarperCollins)
Good Omens, Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman (HarperTorch/HarperCollins)
The Lightning Thief, Rick Riordan (Disney)
Montana Sky, Nora Roberts (Jove/Penguin Book Group)
Look Again, Lisa Scottoline (St. Martin's)
Me Talk Pretty One Day, David Sedaris (Back Bay Books/Little, Brown)
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, Alexander McCall Smith (Anchor Books/Random House) 
Glaciers, Alexis M. Smith (Tin House Books)
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Mark Twain (public domain; edition tbd)
Salvage the Bones, Jesmyn Ward (Bloomsbury)
Favorite American Poems; Large Print edition, various authors (Dover)