General
The Book Week is an annual event, since 1932, for the promotion of Dutch books. It's organised by 'Collectieve Propaganda van het Nederlandse Boek' (CPNB, Collective Propaganda for the Dutch Book).
Dutch booksellers give their customers the book week gift for free during the Book Week when they buy Dutch books for a minimum amount of money. This minimum amount had increased through the years.
| from | to | minimum amount |
|---|---|---|
| 2002 | 2003 | € 11.11 |
| 2004 | 2009 | € 11.50 |
| 2010 | 2019 | € 12.50 |
| 2020 | € 15.00 |
Since 2008 the book week gift is also given to new members of (some) public libraries.
Public transport
Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS) are the main sponsor of CPNB since 2001. One of the promotianal activities is one day of free travel in the NS trains (within the Netherlands) during the Book Week ("Boekenweek") for passengers on presentation of the book week gift.
Since 2008 the book week gift is also valid in the trains of Arriva, Veolia, Connexxion and Syntus. Five years later the book week gift becomes valid in the trains of the (then) new company Breng. However Breng does not run trains on Sundays, the day of free travel. In 2018 Syntus is renamed Keolis.
In 2004 a surplus of two euros had to be paid.
After the cancellations due to the Covid pandemic in 2020 and subsequent years, NS announced in 2023 that the free travel day had been permanently discontinued and that CPNB and NS "were choosing to redefine the partnership."
| date | number of passengers | transport company |
|---|---|---|
| 17 March 2002 | unknown | Nederlandse Spoorwegen |
| 15 March 2003 | 100,000 | Nederlandse Spoorwegen |
| 21 March 2004 | 200,000 | Nederlandse Spoorwegen |
| 13 March 2005 | 100,000 | Nederlandse Spoorwegen |
| 19 March 2006 | 150,000 | Nederlandse Spoorwegen |
| 18 March 2007 | 170,000 | Nederlandse Spoorwegen |
| 16 March 2008 | 200,000 | Arriva, Connexxion, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, Syntus, Veolia |
| 15 March 2009 | 180,000 | Arriva, Connexxion, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, Syntus, Veolia |
| 14 March 2010 | 210,000 | Arriva, Connexxion, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, Syntus, Veolia |
| 10 March 2011 | 200,000 | Arriva, Connexxion, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, Syntus, Veolia |
| 18 March 2012 | 200,000 | Arriva, Connexxion, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, NS Hispeed, Syntus, Veolia |
| 24 March 2013 | 235,000 | Arriva, Breng, Connexxion, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, NS Hispeed, Syntus, Veolia |
| 16 March 2014 | 240,000 | Arriva, Breng, Connexxion, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, NS Hispeed, Syntus, Veolia |
| 15 March 2015 | 240,000 | Arriva, Breng, Connexxion, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, NS International, Syntus, Veolia |
| 20 March 2016 | 250,000 | Arriva, Breng, Connexxion, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, NS International, Syntus, Veolia |
| 2 April 2017 | 250,000 | Arriva, Breng, Connexxion, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, NS International, Syntus |
| 18 March 2018 | 250,000 | Arriva, Breng, Connexxion, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, NS International, Syntus/Keolis |
| 31 March 2019 | unknown | Arriva, Blauwnet, Breng, Connexxion, Keolis, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, NS International and Qbuzz |
| 15 March 2020 | due to the Coronavirus outbreak the free travel day was cancelled by Nederlandse Spoorwegen. |
Book gift
| year | author | title | isbn | circulation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Anna Enquist | De ijsdragers | 90-74336-70-1 | 747,000 |
| 2003 | Ronald Giphart | Gala | 90-74336-82-5 | 780,000 |
| 2004 | Thomas Rosenboom | Spitzen | 90-74336-98-1 | 756,000 |
| 2005 | Jan Wolkers | Zomerhitte | 90-9565-012-3 | 750,000 |
| 2006 | Arthur Japin | De grote wereld | 90-5965-027-1 | 813,000 |
| 2007 | Geert Mak | De brug | 978-90-5965-046-6 | 890,000 |
| Köprü (Turkish translation) | unknown | 20,000 | ||
| 2008 | Bernlef | De pianoman | 978-90-956-5062-6 | 960,000 |
| 2009 | Tim Krabbé | Een tafel vol vlinders | 978-90-5965-084-8 | 968,000 |
| 2010 | Joost Zwagerman | Duel | 978-90-5965-104-3 | 958,000 |
| 2011 | Kader Abdolah | De kraai | 978-90-5965-123-4 | 951,000 |
| 2012 | Tom Lanoye | Heldere hemel | 978-90-5965-149-4 | 833,000 |
| 2013 | Kees van Kooten | De verrekijker | 978-90-596-5191-3 | 750,000 |
| 2014 | Tommy Wieringa | Een mooie jonge vrouw | 978-90-5965-234-7 | 655,000 |
| 2015 | Dimitri Verhulst | De zomer hou je ook niet tegen | 978-90-5965-274-3 | 723,000 |
| 2016 | Esther Gerritsen | Broer | 978-90-5965-360-3 | 655,000 |
| 2017 | Herman Koch | Makkelijk leven | 978-90-5965-423-5 | 657,150 |
| 2018 | Griet op de Beeck | Gezien de feiten | 978-90-5965-433-4 | 686,305 |
| Sa't it lân derhinne leit (Frisian translation) | 978-90-5965-453-2 | |||
| 2019 | Jan Siebelink | Jas van belofte | 978-90-5964-467-9 | 644,000 |
| Jas fan belofte (Frisian translation) | 978-90-5965-489-1 | |||
| 2020 | Annejet van Zijl | Leon & Juliette | 978-90-5965-513-3 | 600,000+ |
| Leon & Juliette (Frisian translation) |
Since 2015 the books have a QR code on the rear to open ticket barriers on the stations.