UNESCO's World Book Day in 2022 falls on April 23 (except in the UK, where we like to be different, as it falls in early March), and if you own the Amazon Kindle or any of the other Kindle models, or simply subscribe to Prime, you're in for a treat.
That's because Amazon is offering 10 free ebooks to celebrate the occasion, which anyone with a Kindle – or a Prime account – can download for free. So if you own one of the best Kindles , you've getting even more bang for your buck.
The offering lasts until April 27, and covers books from a range of authors and genres – we'll list them all below. The aim is to promote literature from all over the world.
To get the books, simply head to Amazon's Read The World page to add them to your Amazon account, then download them to your ereader. You don't need a Kindle to make the most of this deal, as you can read them in a web browser or on the Kindle smartphone app, but we'd always recommend buying a Kindle if you want to read on the go.
What are the free books?
"In this rapturous memoir, writer and activist Laura Coleman shares the story of her liberating journey in the Amazon jungle, where she fell in love with a magnificent cat who changed her life." Check out the full listing here .
"From an award-winning Tunisian author comes a stirring allegory about a country in the aftermath of revolution and the power of a single quest." Check out the full listing here.
"The inspiring true story of one man’s treacherous boyhood journey from a rural village in Ghana to the streets of Barcelona—and the path that led him hom" Check out the full listing here .
"An illuminating and heart-stirring historical novel set in post-WWII Palestine, where the boundaries of love and friendship are challenged by the intractable conflicts of war." Check out the full listing here .
"A killer running rings around the police. A detective spiralling out of control." Check out the full listing here .
"A heartwarming and transporting romantic comedy about finding happy ever after on your own terms." Check out the full listing here .
"From Shion Miura, the award-winning author of The Great Passage, comes a rapturous novel where the contemporary and the traditional meet amid the splendor of Japan’s mountain way of life." Check out the full listing here
"There’s only one thing worse than doing the unthinkable: what you’re willing to do to hide it." Check out the full listing here .
The listing for To The Sky Kingdoms doesn't provide a short description, but you can check out the full listing here .
"The unforgettable story of a man and his alligator." Check out the full listing here
A different crop of free books
If you own an Amazon Kindle, you're likely no stranger to free books - not only are there various subscription services like Prime Reading and Kindle Unlimited, but the Kindle Store has loads of free novels on it, and it's also easy to send a PDF to your Kindle for all the free classics online.
But Amazon's Read The World offering for World Book Day is a little different, as the texts cover a broader range of genres than we normally see from the heavily-genre-fiction-and-romance fare that's normally offered for nothing.
More importantly, this literature spans the whole world, so you can read from authors from Ghana, China or India, as well as other places. Again, we don't normally see this kind of diversity too much from the Kindle store.
So World Book Day will be great news for Kindle owners or Prime subscribers who like to experience the cultures of other countries... which is part of the point of it, really.
Even Halo Infinite’s devs are disappointed with the game’s multiplayer
Halo Infinite’s recently revealed content roadmap has received a mixed reception from fans, but it seems even developer 343 Industries isn’t entirely satisfied with the update schedule.
Speaking in a recent Halo Infinite livestream , 343’s head of creative content Joseph Staten responded to concerns that the multiplayer shooter’s delayed second season of content will run for six months, leaving many players waiting for longer than they’d hoped for Season 3. On top of that, several other much-anticipated features, including campaign co-op and Forge mode, are yet to appear or receive definitive release dates.
Staten candidly suggested that Halo Infinite’s development team is just as disappointed with the slow rollout of new content as players, but must address more pressing issues with the game before it can release more regular seasons (thanks, PureXbox ).
“One thing to make really clear, none of us inside of 343 look at this roadmap and are happy with it,” said Staten.
“All of us want to be doing things faster to deliver more content. We still have this desire to get into a healthy rhythm where we can ship a season every three months, so for us internally it was painful, frankly, to communicate this roadmap with a season that was going to run for another six months.
“But the reason why we're doing that is exactly what we talked about before – we have to prioritize going after quality-of-life issues that are impacting the game right now, like today when you fire up the game. That's our number one priority.
Staten said the team is working on additional seasonal content but must first iron out Halo Infinite’s existing technical issues through targeted improvements.
“That's really how we're organizing ourselves to go after that work and why we're extending the season now," he said.
"But, again, to underline this: none of us looks at that and says, ‘Great, six-month seasons are awesome’. They're not; they're really not. And we need to get ourselves in a position where we can deliver more frequently, and we’re working on that, too.”
A lot of pressure
Halo Infinite has faced a dearth of new content since it released last November. With its second multiplayer season repeatedly delayed, fans have been left playing the same limited number of maps and modes for months, prompting many to leave the game entirely. Campaign co-op and the Forge level editor – features that were advertised before Infinite even released – are also yet to appear, souring the community’s patience further.
In a blog post published in April, 343 Industries acknowledged the disappointing delays but explained it had slowed the rollout of new content to prioritize its team’s health. It said it wanted to establish a “sustainable development rhythm so that we can deliver great experiences to all of you while maintaining a healthy work/life balance.”
“We know we need to deliver more content and more features more quickly,” the blog post read. “Staying true to priority zero means that sometimes we need to slow down in order to stay healthy and move faster later. But we’re also aggressively looking at ways to accelerate.”
That aligns with Staten’s comments above. Although the team would like to pump out multiplayer seasons more frequently, the demands of game development and unanticipated health problems mean even the best-laid plans don’t always work out.
Fans will have something new to play with soon, however. Halo Infinite Season 2 launches on May 3 and will introduce a bunch of new maps and game modes. But the pressure is on. The update will be something of an acid test for the multiplayer shooter, proving whether players are still interested in the game that they'll return in droves, or whether they've lost interest entirely.
New Stranger Things 4 images are missing one key ingredient
A batch of new Stranger Things 4 images have been released online – but there's one notable absence from these dozen brand-new photographs.
Released on Netflix 's various social media channels on March 23, the collection of images tease the various team ups we'll be seeing in Stranger Things season 4 . Curiously, though, there's one vital ingredient missing in each of the stills – and it may hint at the direction that the wildly popular Netflix show 's story is going to go in.
Firstly, check out the new images in the Twitter thread below:
Based on the newly released pictures, it seems that Stranger Things' main players are going to have a plethora of mysteries to solve in the show's next instalment, which is set six months after the third season .
We see Winona Ryders' Joyce Byers and Brett Gelman's Murray Bauman are heading to Russia to rescue David Harbour's Jim Hopper. As Stranger Things fans will remember, Hopper is imprisoned in Russia following the season 3 finale, so the duo will be hopping (see what we did there?) on a plane to break him out.
Additionally, we see other prominent characters investigating Creel House – one of Stranger Things 4's new locations, which we've seen in one of the teaser trailers and official posters – and get our first proper looks at new cast regulars in Eduardo Franco's Argyle and Joseph Quinn's Eddie Munson.
While that's all great to see, there's one notable absence from these images: the Upside Down and, by proxy, the monsters that inhabit it. So, where is it?
Analysis: will the Upside Down feature in Stranger Things 4?
It is unusual that the first official images for the show's fourth season don't actually give any indication that we'll revisit the Upside Down. There is one image, which you can see below, that looks like it could be set in the Upside Down – based on the color hue and saturation, anyway. But it's unclear if this particular scene is situated in the Upside Down.
That said, we're absolutely certain that the Upside Down will feature in Stranger Things 4.
There's no way that we'll get a new season of Stranger Things without one of its key locations figuring in some capacity. We already know that we'll be seeing one creature from the Upside Down - the Demogorgon – in season 4 after one made an appearance in the season 3 finale's post-credits scene. So that's one major link to the Upside Down.
Stranger Things 4's official posters also heavily suggest that the show's main cast will be traveling to the Upside Down at some point. The quarter of one sheets show our heroes walking towards portals to the Upside Down, so expect them to enter this horror-infused alternate dimension in the show's next instalment.
Given that Stranger Things season 4 will, funnily enough, be set across four locations – Creel House, Hawkins Laboratory, California, and the unnamed Russian prison camp – though, the Upside Down will be competing with these settings for screen time.
Stranger Things' creators – the Duffer brothers – have confirmed that season 4 will be the longest entry yet , so the Upside Down won't be fully relegated to the side lines. Still, with the fourth season comprising multiple locations, it may not feature as prominently (at least in earlier episodes) as in previous entries. And that would be a significant divergence from Stranger Things story threads that have come before.
For more Netflix content, check out the 10 biggest shows on Netflix right now , as well as why we think Netflix's new password surcharge is just the tip of an expensive iceberg .
Stranger Things season 4 volume 1 will launch exclusively on Netflix on May 27. Meanwhile, volume 2 will arrive just over a month later on July 1.