Sunday Salon: What Month Is It? Celebrating Books.

Did you know that August is either Read a Romance Month or Romance Awareness Month? I didn't either. And I don't know how official it all is but I like romances so I thought I'd play along. I picked up a romance the other day and read it in one sitting (and standing--while at the stove cooking dinner, if you want to get technical). And a friend is hosting an Outlander viewing party this month too, because what is more romantic than Jamie Frasier?  I'm sure I'll sprinkle other romances in with my scheduled reading this month too because I do like to follow the rules (plus, romances are so wonderfully escapist in the midst of all sorts of back to school craziness).

But as I was thinking about the month being devoted to them, I wondered if there were other book related months or days that I might not know about. So I did a little digging. Of course everyone knows about Banned Books Week in September (and by everyone, I mean everyone who loves books). And if I haven't gone on enough here about October as National Reading Group Month, well, you just haven't been paying attention. World Book Night in April has gotten a lot of press but it has sadly been cancelled for the coming year. Any observant soul who has visited a library in April knows that one of the month's weeks is devoted to National Library Week.

But there were other days devoted to books and reading that I was delighted to discover for the first time. August 9 is Booklovers Day. That sounds like a day that's my birthday, Christmas, and Sunday all wrapped up in one. (Because surely it means that all booklovers should go out and acquire new books that day, am I right?) And it's coming up soon so that makes it even better. Since it falls in Read a Romance Month, maybe it means we should all go out and get some new romances or something. And I hereby grant you permission to declare any book a romance for the purposes of the day, sort of like how my husband tries to get me to see his comic book movies by saying, "But it's a romance." (For the record, just because Spiderman and Mary Jane get it on so that the teenage boys in the audience can all drool over a sex scene in between bad guy chases and things blowing up, does not make the movie a romance.  Just sayin'.) The month of April is completely bookish with not only the library getting in on the action but also being called Drop Everything and Read Month (I can do that. In fact, I do do that. All year. Is that bad?) and National Edible Books Month. Bet you didn't know that last one existed, did you? I'm thinking they mean cake. Because books and cake. And because paper isn't really all that tasty on its own. April also sports National Bookmobile Day. Who wouldn't want to celebrate bookmobiles? I'm thinking of declaring the minivan a bookmobile. I'll bet it qualifies! And finally, there's Children's Book Week in May.

This list leaves out lots of types of books and I think we should rally round and create even more book related holidays, don't you? Because every day should be a book celebration. What sort of book and reading related days, weeks, or months do you think we should celebrate?

My reading this past week has taken me all over the place. I watched a tormented man build a funerary business in London. I went to Massachusetts where a terrible tragedy shaped two children's lives before a second tragedy, and then a third changed them forever. I was privy to the deeply felt emotions of a journalist and author. I traveled to Fool's Gold, California where a woman finds herself wary of but still falling for the local and famous cycling star. I am still in the midst of a dystopian future where a young girl is missing her parents, in New York where a woman is having to decide on whether she wants her settled boyfriend or the artist who inspires her, in a hospital where an ICU doctor is having to make critical medical decisions for a comatose Jane Doe, and in the South where a broken woman is watched and tended to by a man who has cared for her forever. Where did your reading take you this week?