Only 10% of all Argentinians buy and read books. How does the government of Argentina try to battle this?

The plan is to put books on display in cafes and encourage patrons to pick them up and read them while they are there.

The first collection chosen for the scheme is the works of perhaps Argentina's most brilliant and complex writer, Jorge Luis Borges.

"The most beautiful thing about reading is talking about it," says Hernan Lombardi, Buenos Aires's Minister of Culture.

"There is nothing more lovely than reading some Borges and meeting a friend in a cafe who is doing the same. Part of stimulating people to read is stimulating people to talk about what they read," he says.

While I'm not sure if this whole osmosis thing is going to work, I love the idea of governments publishing books and leaving them lying around for people to pick up and read, especially if the books are by someone as great as Borges.

(Thanks to Slog Tipper Maggie for sending this along.)