Each country has it’s own World Book Day. The official one is the 23rd of April.
The original idea was conceived in 1922 by Vicente Clavel, director of Cervantes publishing house in Barcelona, as a way to honour the author Miguel de Cervantes. It was first celebrated on 7 October 1926, Cervantes’ birthday, before being moved to his death date, 23 April, in 1930. The celebration continues with great popularity in Catalonia, where it is referred to as Sant Jordi’s Day or The Day of Books and Roses.
In 1995, UNESCO decided that the World Book and Copyright Day would be celebrated on 23 April, as the date is also the anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, as well as that of the birth or death of several other prominent authors. (In a historical coincidence, Shakespeare and Cervantes died on the same date—23 April 1616—but not on the same day, as at the time, Spain used the Gregorian calendar and England used the Julian calendar; Shakespeare actually died 10 days after Cervantes died, on 3 May of the Gregorian calendar.)
The date of the 25th of March was chosen as the date on which the Ring was destroyed, completing Frodo’s quest and vanquishing Sauron.
How to Celebrate Tolkien Reading Day
Celebrating Tolkien Reading Day can be as simple as the name implies–pick up a book, story, or poem by the author and simply get to reading! Consider other ideas for making the day into something special.
Did you know that? … Tolkien’s friend, C. S. Lewis nominated Tolkien for a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1961, however, one of the members of the Nobel jury wrote that Tolkien’s work “has not in any way measured up to storytelling of the highest quality.”
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBE was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple.
Here is a list of the books that Agatha Christie wrote over her life:
Not too brag or anything, but I have read some of Will Shakespeare work. I was the only in my Year 12 (Senior) class who could understand, and I was quiet proud of that. There are some on here that I would admit to not reading too though.
“Interview with a vampire” I haven’t even seen the movie, lol
I’ve never heard of ‘Flowers in the Attic’ by V. C. Andrews either.
I have no honest interest in reading “Lord of the Flies”.
They include the Bible in this list though, lol. I don’t think even those Christian fanatics have read it!
Just writing a little bit about my reading over the week I had to isolate. I LUCKILY, had at least two hard copy books too read, and then to “help myself”, get through the week, I borrowed a book on my Kobo, lol.
So day zero was Friday the 22nd of July, the day we were officially allowed out was Saturday the 30th of July. Now, I ended up giving myself till the end of Sunday to read as much as I could. Mainly because I then had to stay in on the Saturday anyway, because my partner woke up with a “tickle” in his throat. On Sunday, he decided it was part of the cold weather. But too be safe, we still didn’t go out.
Too quickly check out the week, you can just look at my profile on Goodreads here:
Tolkien Reading Day is held on the 25th of March each year. It has been organised by the Tolkien Society since 2003 to encourage fans to celebrate and promote the life and works of J.R.R. Tolkien by reading favourite passages.
TolkienSociety.org
According to reading length “The Silmarillion” only takes 7 hours and 22 minutes.
Tolkien was influenced by Germanic heroic legend, especially its Norse and Old English forms. During his education at King Edward’s School in Birmingham, he read and translated from the Old Norse in his free time. One of his first Norse purchases was the Völsunga saga.
March 25 was chosen as the date to celebrate annually because it marks the date of Sauron’s defeat, a key evil character in “Lord of the Rings.”
Tolkien Could Read by the Age of Four.
He was a philologist (scholar of languages) at Oxford and even worked on the Oxford English Dictionary.
Many people believed Sauron was based on Adolf Hitler. However, he was based on a character in one of JRR Tolkien’s favourite boyhood books. Tolkien loved SR Crockett’s historical novel, The Black Douglas. Its villain, Gilles de Retz, was based on the French knight (and associate of Joan of Arc), Gilles de Rais, a convicted child murderer. Crockett’s character was also a devil worshipper, allied with a shapeshifting witch and a pack of wolves — similar to wargs.
Puppy!lol
Tolkien and Lewis were friends for several decades when they both taught at the University of Oxford. They were critical of each other’s work: Tolkien disliked The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe because he found the *allegorical depiction of good and evil too *strident. After their first meeting, Lewis wrote in his diary of Tolkien: ‘No harm in him, only needs a smack or so.’
Tolkien was Catholic while Lewis was Protestant.
*As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance.
*loud and harsh; grating. presenting a point of view, especially a controversial one, in an excessively forceful way.
So it seems that Tolkien found Lewis works, either too obvious with the meaning and/or (at the time) Tolkien felt it was too obvious what Lewis was writing. Rather than having a more subtle meaning. Then again, it is Tolkien. The man who created an entire new language for an epic tale.
And STILL Tolkien was rejected for a Nobel Peace Prize for Literature!
The 25th of March is Tolkien Read Day, and while later I will be more “serious”. Today, I just want to relax and lets have fun for the moment! So what can one do for fun on Tolkien Reading Day?!
Well, you don’t HAVE to read…I wont tell. So you can have a Tolkien movie marathon! I’ve wanted to do that for a long time. It’s not reading, but it is Tolkien related!
Download and print this Tolkien word search puzzle. Find all the Middle Earth words.
You know there’s more than Lord of the Rings, and the Hobbit, that was written by Tolkien. Try Beowulf.
So I see that banning books is causing a lot of controversy!lol
The reason that I am putting this under Thursday Theories, is because, like a lot of things in life. Reading is a very personal thing, best left up to the individuals.
Here’s the thing, when it comes to appropriateness for a child. I think it’s best to leave it up to that child’s librarian and sometimes the parents. I grew up in Libraries, my Gran was a Library Manager, who was spread around to a lot of Libraries, because she was good. I would trust a good Librarian any day to choose books for my child.
It all comes back to the individual. You can’t just ban all books, you can’t have politicians decide what is or what is not appropriate. Although I can understand why most people would think that Librarian check in and out books. When you’ve worked in a Library for a long time, you learn about the regulars, you learn how to “read” people.
My Gran, for example, she always knew what books we would like. Even with family members who didn’t read that much, she always knew what books they would like. After all, there is no point too force someone to read if they don’t want too. Sometimes, though it takes someone, like my Gran, too get a “right” book for someone.
Reading though, is really a personal thing. Which is why a lot of the time, one can’t say well this is inappropriate for EVERYONE. Sometimes, it just isn’t. I sure as heck wouldn’t let a politician with a clear agenda decide that either though, lol. If you leave it up to anyone, trust your Librarians!
Lolsys Library 