“YOU are a reader,” asserts the 2022 World Book Day theme, and the focus is on getting books into the hands of kids.
Today is World Book Day and judging by the sheer number of people who throng annual big warehouse book sales, the joys of owning and reading books is not entirely lost to the various modern distractions that are streaming sites, YouTube videos, TikTok, iPads, and such.
What began as a Unesco-sponsored day has now expanded to more than 100 countries worldwide, a global celebration of reading for pleasure.
Many of us appreciate the physical act of book-reading – holding in our hands the precious tome, thumbing the pages and becoming engrossed in the story we’re reading as it unfolds. As youngsters, we may first be attracted to the illustrations we see in the books our parents choose for us, but as we grow and develop our reading tastes, we search for the kind of genres and authors that have piqued our literary appetites.
When I was growing up, there were only three television stations – and even then, the broadcasts usually started up after 4pm. Children went outside to play and when confined indoors, we escaped the tedium of our days by immersing ourselves in stories.
"It is not true that we have only one life to live; if we can read, we can live as many more lives and as many kinds of lives as we wish." – S.I. Hayakawa
My mother read to us, which was a gift that opened the door to our imagination. Books were never considered a special thing – they were a certainty and almost something taken for granted in our home. Books were just there, and something we reached for when eating at the breakfast table or as a procrastination tactic to schoolwork. This scenario was nothing special for my generation – most of my friends were similarly inclined. We were a product of our time – and time to read undistracted by an endless onslaught of outside stimuli was very conducive to propagating a healthy reading habit.
That is not to say that the advances in the world have not affected even the most voracious reader. I would be lying if I said that the last two decades of social media and quick news at the fingertips hasn’t eroded my attention span for an epic novel, for it has. I am most distracted and yearn for the simple engagement of my youth where leisure reading occupied my complete attention.
These days, I start a book and not 20 minutes later turn to my phone to see what new thing has transpired in the world outside the pages before me. Tell me that I am not alone in this malady. My only solution is to hoard books for an off-grid desert island trip. Or I suppose I could leave the phone downstairs in the evening as I snuggle in with a proper book.
A proper book. This is the message for this year’s World Book Day – YOU are a reader. You can go back to it despite a war raging on in Ukraine, a TikTok addiction and the latest Netflix releases. It may take some time and discipline on your part as new habits take at least 21 days to kick in, but I’m sure we will all rediscover the quiet joys of engaging with that part of our mind and soul.
“A book is a gift you can open again and again.” – Garrison Keillor
And for the youngsters in your lives, give them that wondrous start to their creative and sensitive imagination by gifting them books and the love of reading early on enough before the mindless preoccupation with social media takes root. – The Vibes, March 3, 2022
