Quixote marathon reading starts in Madrid

A non-stop reading of the classic Spanish book, Don Quixote, has started in Madrid.

The exiled Cuban author, Guillermo Cabrera Infante, started the marathon, which is expected to finish on Thursday when he is awarded the Cervantes Prize -- the Spanish-speaking world's equivalent of the Nobel prize for literature.

Hundreds of participants will read, one at a time in relay, some of them via video-conference from Latin America and other European countries.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service