Free books in Venezuela

This is an awesome idea:

People in the Venezuelan capital Caracas have been queuing around the block to collect free copies of the Spanish masterpiece Don Quixote. The Venezuelan government is handing out a million copies to mark the 400th anniversary of its publication. Populist President Hugo Chavez has urged Venezuelans to draw inspiration from the figure of Don Quixote.

When I was in school, we received free books all the time through the Reading is Fundamental (RIF) program and it was an awesome way to promote reading. If not for RIF, I'd have never found Roald Dahl - the author most responsible for helping me to discover the joy of reading.

Perhaps the U.S. should try something similar. I'm sure a ton of folks would balk at the notion of spending tax dollars on books, but we're already pretty wasteful with government spending; what's a few more bucks piled onto the national debt?

Anyway, the big question would be what book would be worthy of being selected as the national book? My nomination would have to be The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, but I'm pretty sure that would draw quite a few objections considering it's one of the country's most banned books. Tom Sawyer would also be great, but it's a notch below Huck Finn. If not Twain, my vote would have to go to F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby or Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. Both speak volumes about what it means to be an American and to struggle to achieve the American Dream.

Which book would you nominate?