Book Lovers Day

Did you know that this coming Sunday, August 9th, is Book Lovers Day? Although an unofficial holiday, it’s widely recognized around the world, but no one seems to know who first came up with the idea or when.

Book Lovers Day encourages the celebration of reading and literature. Or put more bluntly: lay down your smartphones, step away from your tablets, laptops, and various other devices and screens, and pick up a book (after you finish reading this post.)

Personally, I think every day should be Book Lovers Day. Then again, I’m an author. My livelihood depends on people reading, which gives me a vested interest in spreading the word about Book Lovers Day.

It pains me when I hear people say that they don’t read books or haven’t read a book since they were forced to in school, or they just don’t have the time to read. And not just because they’re not reading my books. It’s because they don’t read – period. Like they consider it some form of cruel and unusual punishment. Yet they spend hours each day scrolling through their social media feeds.

The most recent statistics I’ve come across show that the average time spent on social media each day is two and a half hours, increasing to more than three hours for young adults and nearly five hours for teenagers. That’s a mind-numbing amount of time spent scrolling through Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram every single day! That’s not just sad; it’s addictive behavior. And that doesn’t factor in the time spent playing video games.

However, even people who don’t spend that amount of time on social media freely claim they don’t have time to read. They’re too busy working, raising a family, running errands, carpooling the kids, cooking dinner, cleaning the house, getting in their 10,000 steps a day, or going to the gym or doctor appointments. Or all of the above.

I get it. That to-do list once described my life. However, except for your day job, you can accomplish most of those chores while listening to audiobooks and at least some of them by toting along a Kindle or a physical book. Has anyone ever arrived at a doctor or dentist appointment and not had to wait a minimum of twenty minutes? That’s at least a chapter in most books, even for slow readers.

So, how about making a Book Lovers Day resolution to discover or rekindle the joy of reading? You can start small. Like the ten minutes you sit in the carpool line at your kid’s school or while getting the oil changed in your car.

A good book will make you laugh, make you cry, introduce you to lifelong friends, take you to new worlds, and expand your mind. I promise, you’ll thank me. And like I said, it doesn’t even have to be one of my books. But should you choose one of my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries or Empty Nest Mysteries, I promise you’ll laugh your way to whodunit.

Happy Book Lovers Day!

I’d love to hear from you in our comment section. What are you reading now?

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