The reading, which is celebrating its 29th anniversary, begins this afternoon at 6 p.m.

The 2024 Cervantes Prize winner, Álvaro Pombo, will read the first paragraphs of the novel via video.

Nearly 2000 people have already booked their reading slot.

The event can be followed via live stream on the website del Círculo, www.circulobellasartes.com, the channel Youtube y Radio Círculo.

The reading, which is celebrating its 29th anniversary, begins this afternoon at 6 p.m.

The 2024 Cervantes Prize winner, Álvaro Pombo, will read the first paragraphs of the novel via video.

Nearly 2000 people have already booked their reading slot.

The event can be followed via live stream on the website del Círculo, www.circulobellasartes.com, the channel Youtube y Radio Círculo.

Today it begins in el Círculo de Bellas Artes The continuous reading of Don Quixote, now in its twenty-ninth edition, is a participatory, intergenerational, and inclusive event. It takes place during a week full of activities for International Book Day and the Night of the Books, featuring workshops, conferences, recitals, and performances for all audiences.

This edition boasts significant international participation, through embassies and cultural institutions from around the world. Young people will also play a prominent role: several schools and institutes will attend events in the Hall of Columns.el Círculo to read the Cervantes novel.

The reading will begin at 18:00 p.m. miércoles 23 and will end around 14:00 pm on Friday April 25; more than forty uninterrupted hours of the fundamental work of Spanish literature and European culture. Álvaro PomboThe 2024 Cervantes Prize winner will be in charge of reading the first lines (via video), followed by the president ofel Círculo de Bellas Artes, Juan Miguel Hernández León; the Minister of Culture, Ernest UrtasúnThe Minister of Industry and Tourism, Jordi Hereu i Boher; the Minister of Health, Monica Garcia; the Minister of Youth and Childhood, Sira Abad Rego and the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez AlmeidaThe list of first readers is completed with the ambassadors of Chile, Germany, Sweden, Andorra and France.

Several branches of the Cervantes Institute, Spanish cultural centers abroad, and various educational institutions and groups from around the world will participate via live streams, making this reading event a key international focus for World Book Day. Among these live streams, those taking place on Friday, April 25, with the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine and the Municipal Library and La Moixeranga bookstore in Paiporta, Spain, are particularly noteworthy.

Parallel activities

El Círculo de Bellas Artes It is once again organizing parallel activities in order to complete the programming for Book Day and enrich the experience of those who visit the institution during these days.

Women in the Life and Work of Cervantes is the title of a talk between writers Fanny Rubio and José Manuel Lucía Megía (Wednesday, 7 p.m.), about the role of women in the Golden Age, a role far more feminine than we've been led to believe. Also on Wednesday, at 8:30 p.m., we'll attend Three Days in April , a session of "good noise" presented by Hara Hernández.

On the morning of Thursday the 24th, Master Yusnel Bacallao will play blindfold chess with those who dare to challenge him in the activity Check to Don Quixote and Mate to the Giant , organized together with Chess in the Park.

Also on Thursday, Madrid Street Art Project, together with the artist Pyramid, will improvise chapters X, XI, and XII of the second part of Don Quixote through graffiti. Shortly after, Eude and DJ Ozetak will rap chapter XVIII in a session titled Hiphopte.

At 19 p.m., the lecture "The Limits of Madness or How to Be Too Human ," a Nietzschean reading of Don Quixote, will take place, given by Óscar Quejido Alonso, professor in the Department of Philosophy and Society of the Faculty of Philosophy of the Complutense University of Madrid and director of the Complutense Nietzsche Seminar.

Also noteworthy is the Korean literature event titled "Stories That Cross the Night" (Friday, April 25), featuring Sohn Wonpyung ( Almond , The Impulse , and 30's Counterattack ), Kim Aeran ( Run, Dad, Run , and It's Summer Outside ), and Bae Suah ( Ayami's Night and Day , Nowhere ). Moderated by Miguel Garrido de Vega.

Organized by: Círculo de Bellas Artes

Co-organized by: Community of Madrid and Ministry of Culture. General Directorate of Books and Reading Promotion

Collaborators: Instituto Cervantes, AECID, UC3M Cultural Service of Madrid, Pluma y Arroba, Chess in the Park School, Paroxa Teatro, Séptima Personal Management, La Noche de los Libros, Hospress, Aldonza and Don Ismael Cheeses, Séptima Personal Management, Spanish Confederation of Families of Deaf People, FIAPAS, Madrid Street Art Project, Network of Cervantine Cities and Quixote Route. Technological collaboration: Higher School of Audiovisual Training, 3D animation and New Technologies.