AMMAN — Some passers-by on the streets of Amman might have believed themselves to be the victims of an April Fools’ Day prank when total strangers offered them books along with sweets. But it was a campaign carried out by Al-Dakhliyah Cir, a group from Jordan’s National Library, to encourage reading in the kingdom.

“Your Book, Your Friend” was launched on the occasion of the UNESCO-sponsored National Book Week, which started the first day of April. Throughout the week, some 1,500 adult and children’s books were distributed around the capital and nearby towns, said Nidal al-Ayasira, the director of the Department of the National Library.

“The initiative aims at a return to print books amid the rise and prevalence of social media and e-books. The National Library has distributed around 150,000 books for free since the campaign 'Your Book, Your Friend' was launched in 2012,” Ayasira told Al-Monitor.

Explaining that the decline in reading is a global problem, Ayasira said sustainable campaigns are needed to encourage reading. “We resorted to distributing sweets with books to tell people that books are candy for the mind. People of all age groups welcomed the initiative,” he said.