I’ll be honest. I really don’t like reading ebooks. And I find if difficult to concentrate listening to audiobooks, even though I love listening to podcasts. I read hard copy books, ones I can hold in my hands and take to the beach (back in the pre-COVID-19 days). I like books whose covers I can look at and whose pages I can flip through.
But as the owner of Bookplate Ink, audiobooks and ebooks are also a little scary and disappointing to me. And with the coronavirus pandemic, I have had some concern that people will start reading more ebooks. After all, libraries and many local bookshops are closed.
But there’s hope! Today is World Book Day, officially UNESCO World Book and Copyright Day. As Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO said, “Books have the unique ability both to entertain and to teach. They are at once a means of exploring realms beyond our personal experience through exposure to different authors, universes and cultures, and a means of accessing the deepest recesses of our inner selves.” What better day to think about and act on that than today? If you’re like me, the state of the world today makes it all the more tempting and important to be able to escape into a good book.
Here at Bookplate Ink, we encourage people to celebrate World Book Day, any day really, by ordering hard copy books from an independent bookstore. Although bookstores are closed during this pandemic, many are still shipping books to customers. And by ordering from an independent store instead of Amazon, you will be supporting a small business that mostly likely really needs your help right now. You can find independent bookstores in your area at www.indiebound.org/indie-bookstore-finder, part of the website for the IndieBound, a resource for Independent local bookstores. If you can’t find a local bookstore that it shipping books, try Powell’s in Portland, Oregon, www.powells.com/, the world’s largest independent bookstore.
Here in Ohio, it is a rainy day today. Perfect for curling up with a good book!