The best bookish month of the year has arrived! March is National Reading month, so we have the pleasure of celebrating our beloved pastime unabashedly and with fervor! So, after you read this post describing all the wonderful bookish holidays we get to celebrate in March, I encourage you to grab a book & let the party begin!
3rd Week: National Introverts Week
Clear your calendar, this is our week people! A week to celebrate our true authentic selves- guilt free! Snag a book and blanket. Put on your favorite, well-worn pjs. Pour yourself a steamy mug of deliciousness and nab your unsuspecting reading pal (aka your cat or dog). Now, kick your feet up and settle into that book that has been on your TBR stack since you started creating such a pile. When friends text you for a night out, simply respond with "Sorry, I'm celebrating National Introverts Week. I'll reemerge among the human population sometime next week. Have fun without me!"
3/2: Read Across America
Read Across America is synonymous with Dr. Seuss Day. It began in 1998 on Dr. Seuss's Birthday to promote reading for children. Ways to celebrate this day is only limited by your imagination (and access to wacky hats). Consider giving one of the following a try: dressing as your favorite character, reading aloud to a child, going on a bookish scavenger hunt, reenacting a beloved story, hosting a reading party, or starting a reading challenge. If you need reading challenge ideas, sign up for my newsletter to receive a free copy of Read, Dang It! It's loaded with ideas to motivate children to read.
3/4: National Grammar Day
Not gonna lie, this is not the most cherished day on the list. In fact, people who hold grammar in high esteem are sometimes cast in an unflattering light (grammar police, Gotcha! Gang, and grammar Nazis come to mind). But if syntax is your thing, today is your day to shine and keep the world grammatically correct. So, get on your high horse and point out the difference between to, too, and two as well as there, their, and they're. But please try to do so in a funny, meme-y kind of way! That's not to hard, is it? (I did that just too drive you crazy!)
3/6: National Day of Unplugging
Not so much a celebration as it is a dare! Can you go an entire day without social media or Google? I'm sweating already! But I'll give it a whirl because I like a challenge- especially if it means more reading time! Good luck with this one.
3/14: National Write Your Story Day
Today might be a good day to start a diary! I don't know about you, but the thought of writing my life story seems a bit daunting. However, scribbling a few reflections on the day can be easily done and possibly even therapeutic.
With that being said, leaving behind the important events of your life in written form would be such a treasure for your children. So maybe start with a timeline, outlining memorable moments. Then begin sprinkling in descriptions of the people, places, and emotions of those memories. Take some time to reflect on the lessons learned and things you wish you knew then. Before you know it, you may have written a beautiful memoir.
3/17: Happy St. Patrick's Day
If you don't post a green or rainbow stack of books, are you even a Bookstagrammer? If you want to take your post over the top, create a clever bookish limerick. If that doesn't dazzle your followers, nothing will!
Not a Bookstagrammer? Read a green book with "lucky" in the title as you sip some green tea. Or if you have children, share a St. Patrick's Day picture book and make cute four-leaf clover bookmarks. To get into the true holiday spirit, brush up on the history of the beloved Irish saint and attend a parade. But for the love of all things holy, whatever you do to celebrate- don't forget to wear green!
3/20: First Day of Spring
The fresh smell of rain and the first rays of sunshine warming my skin are being imagined as I write this post. The words God's grace, the cross, new beginnings, hope, nature's beauty, spring flowers, and life's unending circle pop into my mind. Now insert your books and bookish thoughts into this imagery and you'll have yourself an inspiring spring Bookstagram post!
3/21: World Poetry Day
My Ode to Books
Books can be read (red),
Books can be blue (sad),
Books can be anything
when read by you!
It took me like three hours to write this masterpiece of a poem. Perhaps I should leave it to the professionals. Do you follow any poets on Bookstagram? If not, I highly recommend it. You'll be amazed and inspired by some of their observations about our world today.
If you've never been into poetry, take a dip in the pond and start with the classics. Like nothing else, poetry has the power to speak subtle truths into our hearts.
3/25: National Tolkien Reading Day
As mentioned in my January post, I'm not a Tolkien superfan, but I am an ordinary fan. And I can appreciate the obsession! However, my devotion is reserved for the Hunger Games. But to honor this day, I thought you might enjoy some Tolkien Fun Facts.
The genesis of The Hobbit formed on a blank exam page Tolkien was grading. (I find this particularly fun since I'm a teacher and thus it reminds me that glimpses of stories can arise from anywhere.) He is quoted as saying, "One of the candidates had mercifully left one of the pages with no writing on it (which is the best thing that can happen to an examiner) and I wrote on it: 'In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.' Names always generate a story in my mind. Eventually, I thought I'd better find out what hobbits were like. But that's only the beginning." The first line of an epic tale- amazing!
Tolkien considered himself a hobbit stating, "I am in fact a hobbit, in all but size." So, I think he would appreciate you wearing your elf ears today and having a little fun!
Most disturbing fact-, Frodo's original name was going to be Bingo (after his children's stuffed koala). Would Frodo by any other name sound as sweet? Which brings me to another fun fact, Tolkien wasn't a fan of Shakespeare!
3/26: Robert Frost's Birthday
Two days in the same month to celebrate poetry! Maybe the world is conspiring to make us journey down a road not taken. Hmmm.
Robert Frost (1874-1963) is an award-winning and celebrated American poet best known for "Mending Wall," "Stopping by Woods on a snowy Evening," and "The Road Not Taken." Maybe now is the time to start our poetry appreciation by reading the master. Enjoy.
The Road Not Taken
By Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I- I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
There you have it book loving friends- National Reading Month does not disappoint! Lots of opportunities to write, read, grow, and celebrate!
Happy reading,
Stacey Faubion
@Staceywritesandreads on Bookstagram
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