8 Ways to Celebrate National Read a Book Day

Labor Day Isn’t the Only Holiday the US will Celebrate This Weekend

This Monday, the United States will celebrate Labor Day to honor the contributions workers have made. This national holiday is widely recognized, however, there are countless other national holidays that aren’t so widely celebrated. I am always surprised to hear some of these national holidays. For example, there is a day to celebrate skyscrapers and a day to celebrate chess and there is even a day to celebrate coconuts. While we don’t celebrate any of these particular days, this Sunday is definitely one we will celebrate. Sunday, September 6^th is National Read a Book Day. While we don’t normally need encouragement to read a book, we will be thoughtful about our day and spend some extra time reading and celebrating our favorite books.

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National Read a Book Day

Whether your child loves to read or looks at reading as something they have to do, celebrating Read a Book Day can be a fun way to encourage their reading.

Here is some interesting information about reading shared on National Today:

Over 675 million print books were sold in the US in 2018.
The average person reads between 200 – 300 words per minute.
One study showed adults who read at least 30 minutes per week are 20% more satisfied with life than those who are not spending the same amount of time reading.

Read more interesting responses and fun facts about reading at National Today.

8 Ways to Celebrate Read a Book Day

Read

You can read a portion of a book or a whole book. Set aside some time to read a new book or a familiar favorite. You can also read to a child. We will set aside an extra 15-20 minutes for us to read together.

Listen to an audio book

We love audio books! Every time we are in the car, my kids want to listen to an audio book. We have found some favorites that definitely keep their attention and make the drives go much faster (and quieter).

My kids have also found that they like to listen while they draw so if we need a quieter activity in the afternoon, they may draw or color while listening to a book.

We love our subscription to Audible and take advantage of the large selection (for kids and adults). Click HERE to get a FREE 30-day trial which means 2 Free audio books!

We have also checked out audio books from our local library and we have found some great read alouds on youtube (sometimes even read by the author).

Share your favorite book with a friend

We love sharing book recommendations with friends and family. It is always nice to read a book you know someone else enjoyed. My daughter and a friend exchange books each time they see each other and it definitely increases the amount of reading she does and introduces her to some new authors.

Plan Your Next Read

Look at Book lists like the ones found HERE and at Readbrightly.com.

Use a list to plan your next read.

We love getting new ideas for books and often look at lists to get inspiration.

Donate books or money for books.

We often donate books to Goodwill, Salvation Army, our neighborhood Little Free Library, and book drives across our city. There are often many ways to donate books in your city.

If you can’t find a book drive near you, you could always host one for your neighborhood, friends, family, church, and other organizations.

You can also donate money to non-profits like First Book. First Book is a National organization with local chapters. First Book works with major publishers to get brand new books to kids who may not have books in their homes.

Organize your books.

As simple as this sounds, organizing your books can help you revisit some old favorites or maybe even some books you forgot you had. Organizing your books and thinking through how you want to organize them can encourage connections across texts.

We often reorganize our books to keep the options fresh and to encourage their reading. You can read more about setting up spaces to encourage reading HERE.

I love to hear how the kids want to organize our books. They often have funny ways of thinking about the organization. I also love hearing their conversations about the books they find. Organizing our books encourages more reading!

Join a book club or create your own.

My daughter made a great friend over the summer and they shared books back and forth. They love many of the same books and they read at a similar reading level so sharing books was easy for them. Now that summer has come to an end and they are now in different cities, they have started a book club. They meet once a week over FaceTime to talk about a book and to keep in touch. They have done an awesome job selecting books, making a plan for reading, and discussing the books. They love the time to connect and talking about books they’ve enjoyed.