Book Lovers Day: A True Celebration of Love
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Readers keep books alive.[/caption]
Last Sunday, August 9, the world celebrated Book Lovers Day. This holiday was unknown to me until four days ago, but that doesn’t make it any less wonderful. We always celebrate books and the people who wrote them, but we never give ourselves enough credit as readers. Book Lovers Day poses the perfect opportunity to show some love to people who love books and who make this whole endeavor possible. Without book lovers, there would be no books.
Thousands of years ago, humans started to feel the need to create something that lasted. While many of these writings were methods to keep public order and track debts, it soon developed into something more meaningful. People started realizing that these lasting records could reach more people, even after the author’s death. In Ancient Greece, there were copyist workshops, where people created copies of written works to conserve and disseminate knowledge throughout the rest of the world. Oral tradition slowly became written tradition, and now we can revel in the beauty of the words and stories of people that lived hundreds of years before our time. Without written language, we wouldn’t know the works of Ovid, Jane Austen, William Shakespeare, the Brontë sisters, George Orwell, or Agatha Christie.
But more important than the written word in the origin of books, are the readers. If no one had wanted to read what was written, no one would have bothered to write it down in the first place. It is because of readers that we have books. It is thanks to book lovers that books exist today — to people who love stories, words, or knowledge in general, who care to reach out and try to understand other minds and worlds.
Book Lovers Day is an opportunity to remind ourselves that love is a valuable trait and it can lead to great things. Books owe a great part of their success to their admirers: those who read and scream at the pages, those who rejoice in the protagonist’s adventures, and those who fall in love with the impossibility of a great love affair with that one charming character. Bookworms make books possible.
But what does it mean to love a book? How do we express this love? While some of us might not kiss our books goodnight, there are many other ways to tell how a book is appreciated. Certainly purchasing a copy is not enough. A book needs to be read for its message to pass on. But, even reading is not enough. There are people who highlight and annotate their books. Some prefer to just add bookmarks and avoid damaging the paper. Lots of readers keep their books neatly stacked in a bookshelf. Others like the messy jungle they can make on top of a desk. Are all of these expressions of love? Yes, we all experience reading in a different way.
In my younger years, I refused to annotate and highlight my books. I wanted to keep them in perfect condition, and the mere thought of writing on a book made me cringe. Sharing experiences with fellow readers who loved to annotate their books, I realized it wasn’t as bad as I thought. Annotations make the book yours. Highlighting is useful to find your favorite quotes when you most need them — I now love highlighting poetry books. Whenever I reread an annotated book, I immerse myself not only in the book’s story, but also in my personal story. I relive everything I felt the first time I read the book, and I look back on the person I used to be and the mistakes that person made. In annotations I have found a way to understand myself better and feel closer to that little book hidden in my bookshelf.
But how do we pay back a book what it has given us? In my opinion, the best way is to share the book and the story. For many years, I was reluctant to the idea of lending and borrowing books; the fear of someone else damaging it was too much for me to bear. We have a saying in Mexico that says it is foolish to lend a book, and even more foolish to give it back. I stuck to this saying like it was the Bible, until one of my most trusted friends asked to borrow one of my books and I just couldn’t say no. It was scary, but when my book came back to me without a scratch and she told me how much she’d enjoyed it, the joy I felt was bigger than my fear. Sharing a book you love is a great experience, and it can only increase the amount of love the book receives. Sharing a book makes you a part of it; in a way, you become part of the story.
So whether you prefer paperbacks or hardcovers, or choose to keep everything in your eReader, Book Lovers Day is for everyone who has opened their heart to a book and has let it change their life. And that is well worth a celebration.
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