Stop! Stop what you are doing RIGHT NOW!

Usually I’m not that bossy, but this is a great cause—it’s National Drop Everything and Read Day, though apparently for adults, it is simply “National Read A Book Day”. Whatever we call it,  a more lovely “lower holiday” is difficult to imagine. Raised as a bookworm myself, I’ve so many now that Mom refuses to buy any more books for me as gifts; what is supposed to be our home’s dining room was deemed too far from the kitchen for such use, and is now a library instead—a dedicated library? What a dream come true!

It can be difficult to find time for pleasure reading when one runs a business, but a more rewarding leisure time activity is difficult to imagine. Whether it’s a new biography or economics book, or something a little more easy to read (like my annual visit with The Great Gatsby), I’ve always got at least two books going at once, and often more than that.

Right now, I have several books on the burner(s), including Nina Planck’s Real Food, which I picked up at the Half-Price Books Labor Day sale over the weekend; I’ve been keeping the remainder of And A Bottle Of Rum: A History of the New World in Ten Cocktails, which I started in the spring, on hold in case we take a vacation (though as the summer is very nearly over and that has not happened, it seems unlikely, so that entertaining read may be picked up again). A pair of Henry James novels await my attention as well.

So, what about you? What book(s) will you be diving into today? I can happily recommend And A Bottle Of Rum, which has been a rather enlightening and rollicking ride indeed; Gertie’s brand new sewing book awaits my attention as well—as does Bruce Gamble’s Swashbucklers And Black Sheep, oh-so-kindly sent to me by the publisher (what a delightful surprise THAT was!)—I’ve had time to at least flip through it, and the art is terrific. Honestly, there’s always a stack just waiting for me…and no doubt you’ll have a few interesting suggestions as well. But whatever you do…take time to sit and read a book for a little bit today! May it become a habit you hate to break.