World Book Day

One good celebratory moment after the next! What? You do not know that today is World Book Day? It's not made up -- it's a UNESCO designation. So there you have it -- love on the 21st, nature on the 22nd, and today -- books. The essentials for a happy life.

Data show that most Americans find no pleasure in reading books. (This is not to say they do not read -- there's plenty out there on the internet for them to take in.) In 2025, 40% of us read no books at all and another 27% read only 1-4 books. We are busy, stressed, distracted. No wonder books hold so little value for most of us.

My parents were readers, but quite iconoclastic in their approach to reading materials. My father read newspapers and political magazines. I dont remember ever seeing him with a book. My mother, on the other hand, was a voracious book reader before her vision started really failing her. But her reading ambitions were different than mine: she read to make herself more of an intellectual. She had educational shortfalls and this bothered her till the day she died. She subscribed to serious magazines and journals and she read often complicated articles, all masterfully written. What she digested from all of it is a bit of a mystery to me, but it hardly matters -- she surely improved herself in some fashion. How could she not? Even if you take in your own version of what the author intended, you're still thinking about deep issues, and this in some way is surely going to enrich your life. It did hers. And when in the end she stopped reading, her interest in life fizzled. (Books on tape did not interest her -- it had to be in the form of paper and print.)

Me, I love books. Always have, from the day I started reading (in Poland, very very early in life because in the deep country, there wasn't much else to do, especially in the winter, so my grandfather taught me to read). But my university years interfered with some of the great pleasures of reading. There was so much that I had to read! There was little joy in that, just pressure to get it done. Reading because you have to is very different from reading because you want to. 

A literary critic once said that it's one thing to give a book a good review, it's another to like it. Many good reviews are given to books that give the reader little pleasure. I rarely read those. I like losing myself in a text, in something that I can't wait to return to. And yes, one of the great joys of retirement has been the time I now have to read. I definitely belong to the 10% of Americans who read a great many books, though unlike my mother, I don't count. It cannot be trashy writing (or worse -- trashy editing). I hate that. But nor is it stuff that'll make a great intellectual out of me. That ship has long sailed. Thank goodness. No one to impress anymore. Not even myself.

 

It's a beautiful morning once again. A high of 80F/27C. Millie is bouncing off the walls with energy! Little girl, stick with the toys! Leave the shoes, chords, note pads, pillows, couch cushions alone!

I eat a mini breakfast outside. This may be the last April day warm enough for it. We're cooling down soon.

Why mini? Well, I have my (more or less) monthly breakfast with friends today. Since I plan to leave Millie in her crate, I take her out for a run just before I head out. Get her good and tired at the small dog park! 

There are no other dogs in this park. Not surprised -- it's the big canines that need the exercise before their owners go to work. 

 

 

But there is one visitor who comes over to retrieve a ball that went over the fence. Millie is delighted! Another BFF! 

After a 20 minute saunter, we return home. I close the crate door on her and head downtown to one of my friend's home.

(view from her unit)

The two of them have a small birthday celebration for me and I am touched by this. Being one who rarely remembers the birthdays of others, I can't imagine how people can be this good at looking after the special moments of their friends. I know, I know -- put it in your calendar already! And still, you have to remember to check your calendar. In advance no less. 

The food is great, and we linger over it as always, right into the noon hour.

When I return to Millie, I find that she is still a tired girl. Didn't she sleep at all in the three hours I was away? I do not know. 

I wake her to go to doggie daycare. And of course, I then pick up the kids. And her. And we return to Sally's House.  Where Millie is again stealing the show, stealing the children's hearts. 

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(oh, the smell of warm croissants!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

(happiness is holding Millie) 

 
 

It's usually late when I return to my book of the moment. Oh, but it's a special time. Millie recognizes the routine by now. She settles in her crate, I prop up my pillows and return to my book.

with so much love...