The largest audience at a book reading of a single author is 5,406 persons, set by Stefan Gemmel (Germany) in an event organised by Leserattenservice (Germany) at Festung Ehrenbreitstein in Koblenz, Germany, on 12 June 2012. The author read from his book Alasgus, a story that plays out in Festung Ehrenbreitstein and was originally written for the record attempt.

Due to the great number of pre-registered participants the organisers organised two readings as record attempts that day. The first was successful with an audience of 5,374, bet by the second attempt with 5,406 persons. The audience were pupils from 89 schools all over the federal state of Rheinland-Pfalz, which were accompanied by their teachers. The purpose of author and event was to promote literacy and reading skills within German schools.