Volunteers who love to read will fan out across Nebraska on Monday night to give away new paperback copies of some of their favorite books.

World Book Night started last year in the United Kingdom and a million books were passed out. This is the event’s first year in the US, billed as a celebration of reading.

Alice Meyer, one of the Midwest organizers, says tens of thousands of volunteers are making it happen.

“Some people are going to malls,” Meyer says. “We’ve had a number of teachers who are just going to give them to students that they know are not heavy readers. In some of the larger areas around the country, people are going to subway stations. Some people here are even going to bus stops. Just anywhere people gather, coffee shops, restaurants.”

Each volunteer has been given a carton containing 20 copies of a book to hand out wherever they choose to go.

Alice Meyer with cartons of the free books

Meyer says the World Book Night’s leaders started with a list of 2,500 books and whittled it down to just 30 titles for this one-night-only occasion.

“They wanted books that were already in paperback editions,” Meyer says. “Maybe books that have won awards that were selling well, books that were popular with book clubs. They wanted a good mix of fiction and non-fiction. This year, they added some young adult titles. They wanted literary works as well as commercial works.”

The diverse list of titles includes: “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou, “Friday Night Lights” by H.G. Bissinger, Barbara Kingsolver’s “The Poisonwood Bible,” and “The Stand” by Stephen King, along with 25 more.

One amazing thing about the event, Meyer says, is there’s no money changing hands throughout the entire process.

“The authors have waived their royalties,” Meyer says. “These are special published editions that are not for resale. Printers have donated printing. Paper companies have donated paper. It’s just been such a wonderful cooperation between everybody to make this happen.”

Learn more about the event at: http://www.us.worldbooknight.org

Make that $640 million.

Ticket sales were brisk in Nebraska and nationwide when the estimate for the jackpot in tonight’s drawing in the Mega Millions lottery was an all-time record of $540-million. It has jumped another $100 million.

Yep, that’s well over a half-BILLION bucks.

Lottery spokeswoman Mary Neubauer says it’s not only the biggest jackpot in the game’s history, it will be the largest prize ever offered in a North American lotto game.

“It’s amazing that it’s gotten this high,” Neubauer says. “It’s just something that’s going to happen every once in a while in a lottery game. You never know how many times the jackpot is going to roll before it’s won. In this case, the Mega Millions jackpot has been growing since late January. It hasn’t been won that whole time and that’s why it’s reached this historic number.”

There are drawings twice a week (Tuesdays and Fridays) for the Mega Millions game, which is played in Nebraska, 40 other states and the District of Columbia. That means the game has had 18 drawings in a row with no grand prize winner.

Neubauer says the odds point tonight.

“There are only so many number combinations in the game and with the level of sales that we’re seeing across the country, and sales have been high, I would anticipate there will be a whole bunch of tickets sold so it becomes more likely that there probably will be a winner,” Neubauer says, “but I don’t know. Nobody can predict, obviously, until the drawing happens.”

The estimated prize is $640-million for the annuity option over 25 years, or the cash option of $462-million. Even with the cash option, that’s enough to give a dollar to every person in the United States and Canada and still have tens of millions of bucks left.

The going rate for a flight on a Russian rocket to the International Space Station is a mere $35-million — so you could make that trip ten times. When a jackpot reaches this monumental level, many people will team up with co-workers and buy batches of tickets in a pool.

Neubauer has a word of caution for those players.

“Just make that sure everybody can see the tickets before the drawing and that everybody knows how much money they put in so there aren’t any tough questions later amongst your office mates, your friends or neighbors,” Neubauer says. “Make sure everybody knows what’s going on within your pool so that all of your questions can be answered and there won’t be any hard feelings later.”

The odds of winning the Mega Millions jackpot are about one-in-176-million. The drawing is at 10 PM/Central. Learn more at www.nelottery.com.