National Book Lovers Day-August 9

August 9 is National Book Lovers Day.

I am a bibliophile and have been one since childhood.  In fact, Biblio is my avatar name. Books were my favorite birthday gifts.  A week before I got married I took the GRE  test so I could go to Library School the following year.  (I knew that I wanted to be a Librarian.  But no, we did not get to sit around and read books all day.) Unlike some of my fellow librarians, I never had the urge to catalog my Golden Books.

With so many books and so little time, I’ve turned more into a tsudonko. (Tsundoku is acquiring reading materials but letting them pile up in one’s home without reading them. The term originated in the Meiji era (1868–1912) as Japanese slang. It combines elements of tsunde-oku, (to pile things up ready for later and leave) and dokusho (reading books).

Step back in time

• The very first books used parchment or vellum (calf-skin) for the book pages.
• The book covers were made of wood and often covered with leather.
• Clasps or straps kept the books closed.
• Public libraries appeared in the Middle Ages.
• Public libraries often chained the books to a shelf or a desk to prevent theft.

Moving forward

Along with several recent developments, book manufacturers use digital printing. Book pages are printed using toner rather than ink. As a result of digital printing, print-on-demand opens up a whole new realm of publishing. In this case, distributors don’t print the books until the customer places the order.

More and more, people read E-books. E-book (electronic book) refers to a book-length publication in digital form. They are usually available through the internet. However, they can also be found on CD-ROM and other systems. Read an E-book on a computer or via a portable book display device known as an e-book reader, such as a Reader, Nook or Kindle.

Contributed by my friend and shipmate Bonnie Brown, when neither of us could figure out how to put it the comments.

How do you plan to celebrate National Book Lovers Day?