Absent on Jan 8th

I've made a decision .....I am NOT going to blog on Jan 8th 2009. Even better: I am not going to visit your blog to read your great posts either. Nope, I am going to ignore you. Even if my bloglines account says 100 unread posts, ...I'll leave them to the next day.

There is a very special reason for that. It's because January 8th is a day to read. You remember the real reading in those things that we call books? A whole bunch of papers full of print with numbered pages to turn in between 2 cardboard sheets. And if that's really really to hard, read a magazine or something, anything printed that you hold in your hands.

You ask why? Well, Soccer Mom in Denial has a very good reason to launch this day for the 2nd year in a row. This is what she tells us:

Because according to a report released last year reading books is linked to civic engagement. This National Endowment for the Arts reports that young folks aren't reading like they used to. Get this:

• only 30% of 13-year-olds read almost every day
• the number of 17-year-olds who never read for pleasure increased from 9 percent in 1984 to 19 percent in 2004 - that is 1 in 5 kids don't read for fun
• Almost half of Americans between ages 18 and 24 never read books for pleasure
• The average person between ages 15 and 24 spends 2 to 2 1/2 hours a day watching TV and 7 minutes reading

According to Diane Gioia, the Chair of the NEA,
"The poorest Americans who read did twice as much volunteering and charity work as the richest who did not read. The habit of regular reading awakens something inside a person that makes him or her take their own life more seriously and at the same time develops the sense that other people's lives are real."

A year later, that quote still gives me chills. It shows that reading can transcend poverty, help people think beyond themselves.

That is why I'm asking folks, myself included, to take time one day in January to stop blogging - for the entire day or part of the day - and use the blogging time to read. Last year over 100 folks got in touch with me to say they were suspending blogging for the day to read. So read a book. A magazine. A newspaper. Take the button and please paste it in a post as well as your sidebar (link back to http://denyingsoccermom.blogspot.com/2008/12/day-to-read-2009.html). Write about this. About what books, magazines, newspapers mean to you. Write a couple of posts about writings that have taken you to another place. Then Thursday, January 8, 2009 turn off your computer and read. Then on Friday, January 9th, write a bit about what you read.

I don't need a fixed set day in order to pick up a book. I love reading. Books are fun and I hope you think so to or I hope you are willing to discover so. On the other hand, I am not nearly reading as much as I'd like too. TV, computer, other media are all so demanding on me and I give in. And I'm always surprised by how long it takes me to finish a book.
So I'll be in again this year.

If you want to know what I was reading a year ago, check it out here. Or simply click on the label books below to find some more books I loved last year! If you play too, make sure you leave soccer mom in denial a comment so she can add you to her list.
I am really curious to see on Jan 9th (or 10th or ...) what you've been reading. Since I'll be recovering from some minor medical action myself, I might need some extra tips (yes that again, it has turned into a recurring problem...this time planning to get rid of it for good and planning to give myself enough time to rest and recover...and read)