Astronaut Celebrates World Book Day in Space with Tiny Tomes (Photo)

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European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti celebrated World Book Day in space on April 23, 2015 with this photo of five tiny books on the International Space Station.
European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti celebrated World Book Day in space on April 23, 2015 with this photo of five tiny books on the International Space Station. (Image credit: Samantha Cristoforetti via ESA)

Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti is not just a space traveler, she's apparently also a bibliophile who can't bear to be apart from her books, even while living off planet Earth.

To show her love for books, Cristoforetti celebrated World Book Day today (April 23) with a photo of five teeny, tiny tomes floating in weightlessness on the International Space Station, with a view of the Earth serving as a picturesque backdrop. The diminuitive books are in different languages, including English, German and French. 

"I like reading books because they answer questions I didn't yet have ... #WorldBookDay," Cristoforetti wrote in a Twitter post accompanying the photo. She translated the message in English and Italian.

Samantha Cristoforetti is an astronaut with the European Space Agency and part of a six-person crew currently living on the International Space Station. She has been chronicling her mission on Twitter, YouTube and other social media outlets to share her flight with the public. You can see more of Cristoforetti's space photos here.

Last week, she donned a Star Trek uniform (apparently from the TV series "Star Trek: Voyager") to welcome the arrival of an unmanned SpaceX Dragon cargo ship carrying tons of supplies, including the world's first espresso coffee machine in space.

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Tariq Malik
Tariq Malik
Editor-in-Chief

Tariq is the Editor-in-Chief of Space.com and joined the team in 2001, first as an intern and staff writer, and later as an editor. He covers human spaceflight, exploration and space science, as well as skywatching and entertainment. He became Space.com's Managing Editor in 2009 and Editor-in-Chief in 2019. Before joining Space.com, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times covering education and city beats in La Habra, Fullerton and Huntington Beach. In October 2022, Tariq received the Harry Kolcum Award for excellence in space reporting from the National Space Club Florida Committee. He is also an Eagle Scout (yes, he has the Space Exploration merit badge) and went to Space Camp four times as a kid and a fifth time as an adult. He has journalism degrees from the University of Southern California and New York University. You can find Tariq at Space.com and as the co-host to the This Week In Space podcast with space historian Rod Pyle on the TWiT network. To see his latest project, you can follow Tariq on Twitter @tariqjmalik.