National Book Lovers Day

Devin Owen
MSMU Class of 2026

(8/2024) There are typically 365 days in a year—aside from leap years of course. This means that there are hundreds and hundreds of National days in a year to celebrate! If you happened to read my article last August, you would have read about National Sister Day, which takes place on August 4th each year. As someone with multiple sisters, it is a day I hold close to my heart. However, there is another day in August that I find to be worth celebrating as well: National Book Lovers Day on August 9th!

Now, not to say that it is obvious that I would be a fan of such a day but, in all fairness, I am an English major and a writer so books are basically a lifeline for me. I find that books are crucial to our existence though, they just hold so much knowledge! The best part about books is that they don’t just carry knowledge, but rather that they open a door to totally new worlds for the readers. There is romance, action, horror, fantasy, history, and so much more. Each genre is a new and different world for the reader to explore.

Since the day is centered on book lovers and not just books in general, I want to focus on book lovers personally! I asked friends, family, and peers to tell me about their favorite books and why they mean so much to each person! The answers that I received from each person allows you to open your mind to different books and genres. There were so many books and authors that I hadn’t known of that I can now look into. After reading this article, maybe my fellow book lovers can add a few new options to their reading lists!

The first person I interviewed was my boyfriend Ayden, who is like me and enjoys reading a good book in his down time. Ayden’s favorite book is "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" by Sherman Alexie. The novel follows the ‘misadventures’ of a young teenage boy named Arnold Spirit Jr.—who typically goes by just ‘Junior’—as he makes the decision to leave the Spokane Indian Reservation. Ayden read this book while he was still in high school as well and found it to be helpful in adjusting to the changes brought with being a teenager. This is one of his favorite books because it was super easy for him to relate to and connect with. Finding novels that have characters which remind you of yourself is always a comforting experience because there may be aspects of the book where you and this character could relate due to being in a bad place, but the character emphasizes that there is in fact a light at the end of the tunnel and that the problems can be solved. Ayden said he would recommend this novel to "any high schooler who is struggling. It’s a great book about a kid who finds himself in all the sticky situations but figured out how to solve his problems to the best of his abilities. It’s also really cool to see how life on a reservation differs from life off of a reservation and the cultural differences that are emphasized."

My second interview is going to be much more familiar to my readers of the Emmitsburg News Journal as it is from our recent Graduate writer Claire Doll! Claire has two books that she finds to be incredibly noteworthy: "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath and "Writers and Lovers" by Lily King. These novels both "fall generally into the genre of women’s fiction and portrays the struggles of women becoming someone in the world while faced with internal and external pressures," which is exactly what makes Claire like them as much as she does. Claire made sure to emphasize Sylvia Plath’s "The Bell Jar" specifically as a great novel to read as Sylvia Plath is one of her icons and she finds her to be such a lovely writer, which I cannot help but to agree with! Claire stated that both of these novels "have to do with the protagonists as writer while they also face challenges with mental health and societal status!" With all of that in mind I personally can’t wait to dive into these novels! "I used to like romance novels, but I’ve fallen in love with women’s fiction as a whole as a 22-year-old college grad just trying to figure things out." Personally, I relate with Claire on this because as a 20-year-old woman, it’s hard to figure out where I fit in the world and what my purpose will be. The entire genre of women’s fiction again is a form of comfort because it is so relatable.

Finally, I would like to tell you about one of my own favorite novels. This is the first book I can think of when someone asks me for a book recommendation because it is just absolutely riveting! "Where The Crawdads Sing" by Delia Owens is—in my opinion—a work of art. Ironically, I hated it at first but after pushing through the first few chapters, I couldn’t put it down. This novel became my pool and beach read for the summer, and even after finishing it I take it with me for travel to reread. The book is a mix of jumping from the past to the present in attempts to solve a suspected murder, so it embraces the theme of a coming-of-age narrative whilst also being a haunting and thrilling mystery novel. I loved this novel so much because it kept me on my toes, I didn’t want to put it down because you never knew what would happen next. The whole book takes you by surprise, with every twist and turn that comes in each chapter. The story is incredibly chaotic all of the way through, yet towards the end it becomes more peaceful, which is a nice change of pace. I think this is a novel so good that everyone should read it! Hopefully this will give you the opportunity to expand your reading lists this year and embrace being a book lover! Be sure to celebrate your love for books on August 9th this year!