What do you think of the giving away of books for free (as part of World Book Night) as a premise?

World Book Night is on Monday. (See more details here) I’m a giver, which is great…

I had an interesting conversation with a book shop owner about the premise behind it… On one hand it is designed to encourage reading and that’s a good thing. On the other, so the book shop owner pointed out to me, it devalues the book as an entity. I thought he made a good point.

What are your thoughts?