First and foremost I am celebrating literacy for World Book Day because it is a life skill that affects everyone. It is imperative to learn how to read, at any age although preferably at a young age. However, you are never too young to learn new things and I have had the pleasure of teaching and assisting people with their reading skills over time.It breaks my heart when I find out about girls and women that have been ridden of not only education but their basic right to learn how to read due to their gender in certain countries. It vexes me when older illiterate adults in developed countries do not want to know how to read out of ignorance. Like I said it is a life skill, one that has an impact on our daily lives.
Aside from the hard stuff, of course reading is also for pleasure which is what I presume today is all about. Roald Dahl is one of my favourite Writers of all time and I have several of his books so no doubt one of his books was the first I ever bought for pleasure if not a Jacqueline Wilson book. Wilson was also a childhood favourite however, I would still read Roald Dahl today despite that Disney kind of ruined his stories for me. Not all books are meant to be adapted to film. Hollywood studios are ignoring me completely on that one.
Books are big business which is funny because I was told twice that "There's not much money in books" YEAH RIGHT! I am sure that J.K Rowling, Celebrities that have written books especially TV Chefs and all lesser known people that eventually wrote a tell-all for big publishing houses, would beg to differ. Kmt. It all depends on the publishing deal (if any), resources and your audience of course. My point is that, what they were saying is not necessarily true and their standpoint mostly applies to small publishing houses, people with few resources and Author's with low public profiles.
If I haven't said so before what I will say is; much like the music industry not everyone who is creating the work will end up profiting from it but book publishing is still big business I can assure you.
Taking me to my second reason for celebration, as a new Author I am celebrating my debut book. It feels both strange and fantastic to know that my work is now 'a part' of World Book Day being that I'm now published.
I really wish I could post a better picture onto the web but this one still gets my point across and as long as I put my vanity aside it will suffice.
RIP Harper Lee. Lee was a pioneering Author of her day who passed away recently, I had no idea that it was her who wrote To Kill a Mockingbird and with the news of her death I can't keep pushing off the chance to watch the film version on Netflix. I am learning more about her now, reminds me that I also need to finally buy I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (RIP Maya Angelou).
Apparently, David Bowie was an avid reader and that is what he did for leisure. It takes me forever to finish a book although I do love to be in a bookstore. I am not so much of the reader that many people would expect me to be. I love to read poetry (obviously) but even more so I prefer reading frequent short pieces of information and anything that makes me feel instantly intellectually stimulated as opposed to reading fiction hours on end. I just don't have the patience but admire the Writers who compile great stories and worlds of imagination together. Biographies do it for me also but again, I do not have the patience to give it my undivided attention start to finish.
Happy reading people, BIG UP BOOKS & AUTHORS EVERYWHERE!
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