Our society is a very media centered one, I’m pretty sure we can all agree on this. Sometimes I do wish it were a tad more focused on print media. Specifically, books. What a world we could have if being a bookworm was seen as perfectly standard instead of, say, turned into amusingly dorky personality traits for movies and niche memes. (For the record, I do LOVE the memes.)
Can you picture it? Can you see a time/place where you could walk around in a bookquote Tshirt, reading as you stroll, with another stack of books waiting in your super cute bookish tote bag, on your way to wait in line for the used bookstore to open, and no one would bat a single eyelash. In fact, they might even recommend another book while you’re both in line anyway.
I can see it all in my mind so clearly that I’ll go ahead and list a few fun ways books and reading might be incorporated into everyday life. I present to you: five bookish events which should totally be a thing.
Holidays Specifically for Reading
This is already a thing in Iceland and has been for decades, I don’t see why we can’t make it a holiday tradition everywhere else. ‘Christmas Book Flood‘, or Jolabokaflod, is the tradition of giving books as presents on Christmas Eve and then also giving everyone the time to sit and actually read their present. Whilst sipping hot chocolate. Yes. Perfect. Where do I sign the petition to make this happen here?
Literary Getaways
Like a company retreat or a yoga weekend, except better because it would be devoted to books. Everyone would be socializing—sitting adjacent to each other and reading the same book totally counts as ‘socializing’ to us booknerds, by the way. Book clubs could all get together to celebrate their current read at a pretty, forested, isolated location. TELL ME THIS DOESN’T SOUND LIKE HEAVEN.
City Bookstore Tours
Imagine entire tours dedicated to just the bookstores in a city. You’d pay for your ticket, get into the tram, and spend a blissful day or three being driven to each store. With guides to tell you interesting facts about the history (in 1973 this was the first location to offer erotic romance books for sale!) snack stops, and plenty of time built in to read your new purchases at local parks or coffee shops.
The Emmys, For Books
Hype and glamour and a red carpet for the author and their entire publishing team on release day. Fans cosplaying. Scrawled signatures as the author walks by. Pundits speculating about the plot twists in those TV runway talk shows which no-one actually watches anyway. And awards being handed out left and right, for best cover design, perfectly set typography, and catchiest writing playlist.
Uninterrupted Reading Time
It could be (AND SHOULD ALREADY BE) normalized that when someone is reading, you let them read. Like the unspoken but super strong rule that you sit at the other end of the bench when another person is already sitting. No one tells us to do it, it’s just a thing which everyone knows to do. Well, an open book should also be a universally acknowledged non-verbal signal to leave this person alone.
I love the Christmas Book Flood idea.
It sounds like the perfect Christmas, to me. I’d absolutely participate every year!
I’m just going to go ahead and observe the no interrupting people while they’re reading thing… and I’m going to take it as a horrible warning when other people do it. A sign that there might be other “behaviors” down the road. 😉
Right? It should be a basic behavior tenet.