It's National Book Lover's Day!

Get out that stack of books in your tottering to-be-read pile, choose one, and get ready to celebrate. Tomorrow is National Book Lover's Day! And there's no better way to celebrate the occasion than by reading. If you're like me, your to-be-read pile increases far faster than you can read them, and soon that pile becomes a nuisance in the way, if not even a safety hazard.

Here are 15 quotations to inspire you on this momentous day. I especially like the first one because good writers are also lovers of books, and not just of their own. (NOTE: Just because I've included these quotations doesn't mean that I either like or approve of what the quoted person typically wrote or writes; I just like what he or she wrote on this topic!)

1. "If you don't see the book you want on the shelf, write it." (Beverly Cleary)

2. "The more you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go." (Dr. Seuss)

3. "Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination and the journey. They are home." (Anna Quindlen)

4. "Reading gives us a place to go when we have to stay where we are." (Mason Cooley)

5. "A room without books is like a body without a soul." (Cicero)

6. "If you don't like to read, you haven't found the right book." (J.K. Rowling)

7. "Both reading and writing are experiences--lifelong--in the course of which we who encounter words used in certain ways are persuaded by them to be brought mind and heart within the presence, the power, of the imagination." (Eudora Welty)

8. "A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies.... The man who never reads lives only one." (George R.R. Martin)

   
   

9. "Some books are to be tasted; others swallowed; and some few to be chewed and digested." (Sir Francis Bacon)

10. "Reading is essential for those who seek to rise above the ordinary." (Jim Rohn)

11. "A book is a gift you can open again and again." (Garrison Keillor)

12. "Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers." (Charles W. Eliot)

`13. "Once you've read a book you care about, some part of it is always with you." (Louis L'Amour)

14. "This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth: but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success." (Joshua 1:8)

15. "You can never be lonely if you have a good book." (Ronald Reagan)

With these quotations in mind, you should be reminded that Christmas is only about four months away, and books make great gifts. (See Quotation No. 11 above.) Have you considered some of my books as gifts? Without seeming to be too forward, I must admit that I'd welcome such gifts for myself, too!

I think that in celebration of National Book Lover's Day ,I'll go to Mr. K's, our local used book store, or to the library, and find a good book to read. No, wait. I already have a dangerously tall to-be-read pile. Maybe I should act in the interest of health and safety and read one of them.

How will you celebrate National Book Lover's Day?