Book Perfume

It’s time to deck the halls and gather with your most beloved companions. Yes, I realize Christmas in July is over, but I’m talking about a real celebration. It’s BOOK LOVERS DAY!

You knew I meant deck the halls with loads of books and gather with your most beloved hardcover or paperback companions, right?

For those of us who can’t get enough of a good read, every day is Book Lovers Day, but if there’s going to be an OFFICIAL HOLIDAY for it, who are we to quibble over details?

While the most obvious way to celebrate is to spend the entire day reading, there are plenty of ways to honor this joyous occasion. Here are ten that come to mind.

Find a friend and talk about books

I know, I know, you’d much rather spend the day with your nose buried in a book and not actually have to talk to people, but what if you’re talking to people about BOOKS? That’s a totally different thing. Just yesterday, I spent a good 45 minutes chatting with a fellow bibliophile about BOOKS! (Exclamation point included.) And I don’t mean specific titles, I mean the idea of books—touching the spines in bookstores, holding them, smelling them, THE TRAUMA OF LOANING ONE OUT AND NEVER GETTING IT BACK. There’s nothing like dishing about books with someone who actually gets it. And don’t worry about getting tied up in the conversation for too long. They want to get back to their book too.

Wear your most bookish apparel

Sure, you love books, but how will complete strangers know you love books unless you’re rocking a Book Nerd sweatshirt or a pair of library card socks? As I write this blog, I’m wearing my A Tree Grows in Brooklyn t-shirt, because if there’s anyone who should be honored on Book Lovers Day, it’s Francie Nolan. And maybe someone will see you wearing your book-love-declaring apparel and ask, “Hey, For Whom the Bell Tolls, is that a good book?” and you can be like. “Of course it’s a good book. Why else would I be wearing it on my chest?” And then you’ve sent them off with a really good book recommendation and you look tres chic.

Support an author by writing a review

If you loved a book, don’t keep it to yourself. BOOK LOVERS AREN’T SELFISH. Let the whole world know! One of the biggest ways to say “thank you” to an author is by leaving a review on Amazon or Goodreads. It helps the book get seen, and gives it a better chance of showing up in the incredibly valued, “If you loved {{Insert Beloved Title}}, you’ll also love…” Don’t you want your favorite author to sell more books and in turn be able to publish more books? Yes, you do. So give a friend a hand.

Visit a bookish location

If you really feel the need to crawl out of your reading cave, you can be totally wild and actually go someplace. How about an author’s house? I feel incredibly fortunate to live in New England, where I can visit Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House, Edith Wharton’s The Mount, or the Mark Twain House and Museum, just to name a few. And not only will you learn a lot, see some incredibly cool artifacts, and become a little more brilliant just by being there, you can also buy REALLY COOL THINGS IN THE GIFT SHOP. Just ask the girl sipping from her Tom and Huck mug while writing in her Edith Wharton notebook with her Little Women pen.

Bake something literary-inspired

Reading all day is enough to get anyone hungry. You’ve got to keep your energy up! But if you want even your food to have a bookish flair, might I recommend whipping up something literary-inspired, like a recipe from the Outlander Kitchen cookbook or maybe the luscious title dessert from Amy E. Reichert’s The Coincidence of Coconut Cake? You can even go really crazy and create your own bookish dessert, like a plain shortbread cookie called a Jane Eyre or a rich and nutty Heathcliff bar. THERE ARE NO RULES ON BOOK LOVERS DAY.

Use only book-related dishware

Don’t feel like cooking today? You can still eat like a very hungry bookworm with very bookish glassware. The turkey sandwich and iced tea I had for lunch may not seem very literary, but the book-shaped dish and Pride and Prejudice glass basically put me in the running for a Pulitzer.

Rearrange your bookshelves

Just like it’s good for you to get a little change of scenery when you read, it’s probably good for your books to get up and move around a little bit too. Maybe Jane Austen doesn’t want to be next to Anne Bronte anymore! You can arrange them by chronology, category, color—whatever you like! Who KNOWS what could happen when you stick Scarlett O’Hara next to Father Ralph de Bricassart?

Spend time with your earliest companions

What are those books that made you fall in love with reading? Charlotte’s Web? Madeline? Beezus and Ramona? The Secret Garden? Visit with them for a while. Hold them. Flip through the pages then whisper “thank you.” It’s not weird. Besides, who’s going to judge you? Ramona Quimby? She squirted an entire tube of toothpaste in the bathroom sink just for kicks. She’s in no position to cast the first stone.

Buy a book! (Or check one out from the library!)

There’s nothing like the euphoria of getting a new book, or a new old book. Just yesterday, I picked up four antique Pollyanna books for $3 each and basically skipped home. When you walk into a bookstore or library and see all of the possibilities surrounding you and get to decide which one (or two or three) you’re taking home with you? You basically feel like Queen Elizabeth during the Royal Ascot. (I imagine. IT’S HER FAVORITE DAY OF THE YEAR!)

Watch a literary adaptation

If you feel like you’re getting eye strain from staring at your pages for too long, DON’T PANIC. You can still enjoy some of your favorite literary characters on screen! Grab some tissues and cry through Me Before You. Or binge A Discovery of Witches and swoon over Matthew Goode. Or, if you have even more time on your hands, watch Robert Mitchum kick butt through all 41 hours of Winds of War and War and Remembrance. There are so many possibilities!

Obviously, no human being could get through all of these things in one day (unless you’re a time traveler like Claire Fraser, in which case, what’s your secret and where can I find your husband?). Like I said, every day is Book Lovers Day for readers like us, so we should keep that holiday spirit all the year through. Right now, I’m going to curl up with my dog, Ollie Twist, pour myself another cup of tea in my Hemingway mug, and get back to the thing I love most in the world: spending time with people who only exist on the page.

How are you celebrating Book Lovers Day?