Collectieve Propaganda van het Nederlandse Boek

The organization has been active since 1930. One of its main activities is organizing the annual Boekenweek (since 1932), a week-long, nationwide promotional event of Dutch books for adults and children. During Boekenweek the buying public is presented with the Boekenweekgeschenk ("Book Week Gift"), a free book given to purchasers of another Dutch-language book (above a certain value), or to those who become a member of a library. For the Boekenweekgeschenk, a Dutch author is commissioned by the CPNB; the sole exception to date was the 2001 selection, Woede ("Anger") by Salman Rushdie. There is a parallel Kinderboekenweekgeschenk ("Children's Book Week Gift") for children's literature, which takes place during the Kinderboekenweek held in October. The 2012 Boekenweekgeschenk was written by Tom Lanoye. Recently added promotions include Maand van het Spannende Boek, a month-long event for crime novels, which opens with an awards ceremony called De Gouden Strop ("The Golden Noose"), which names the best Dutch crime novel of the year. Since 2006, the CPNB holds an annual Nederland leest ("The Netherlands Read") campaign in November, during which the work of a single Dutch author is highlighted and promoted. The 2012 campaign celebrates W.F. Hermans; a newly printed version of his 1958 classic, The Darkroom of Damocles, is given to all members of public libraries. The organization also awards the Boekensleutel literary award. ==Controversy==

Selections for the Boekenweekgeschenk were frequently criticized for being mediocre or even downright bad. (besides Willem Frederik Hermans, Harry Mulisch, and Jan Wolkers), to write the Boekenweekgeschenk for 1981, and negotiated with Reve that his work, The Fourth Man, would not discuss homosexual relations between men. After Reve sent him the first forty pages, CPNB director Dick Ouwehand told Hazeu that there were controversial passages which needed to be cut (though it is one of only a few novels by Reve to have a mainly heterosexual theme Vrij Nederland called the book "old-fashioned, sleep-inducing, and absolutely unrealistic." The controversy was played out in the national media, with the , a popular singer whose oeuvre Reve had publicly championed, singing a song, Lieve Gerard ("Dear Gerard"), on a TROS television show, De Boekenweek show. Reve had no complaints afterward and did receive his fee. ==References==