Icelandic Jolabokaflod

  This is a very interesting tradition Iceland has. I, being a lover of Iceland and it's traditions, love the idea of this tradition in particular. I feel that due to our advances in technology and certain other aspects of our culture here in the US that we are losing touch with literature and the written word in general. This is a very sad thought.
  Now I'm not saying that smart phones and the like are a bad thing necessarily, but there needs to be a balance here. Perhaps that's the real problem... we don't know how to balance our lives. Perhaps we, as a country, should start observing a similar such holiday as Jolabokaflod and reassimilate ourselves to our written word culture. Not to mention how our "book" culture is disappearing to the point of becoming a cult fad. It's definitely sad and distressing to know that our schools no longer teach our children how to write in cursive, that high school graduates can't survive academically in college and that we'd rather watch a YouTube video on our smart phone than read a book. The state of our nation in this respect certainly needs some fixing.
  But the good news is that it's not too late. With movies like the Harry Potter series and Lord of the Rings series reading (especially in the Young Adult genre) is becoming "cool" again. I still think it's sad that it takes a great movie(s) to do this but that's just my opinion. The fact is that it's helping the problem. People, and especially young adults, are reading again. This is a step in the right direction but we still need more. We need more role models that read and appreciate writers/books. We need more big bookish events where readers of all ages can get involved. Instead of Box Office Hits we need Book Office Hits LOL 😋 The smallest steps in the right direction can make way for many more.
  I personally am starting by observing Jolabokaflod in my family this holiday season. I am planning on going to at least 1 big bookish event in 2018. I'm going to get my son and I involved in our local library & reading groups/challenges. And I have signed on to becoming a Book Fairy this year for the holiday season (I will be publishing another blog post about this soon). These are my personal pledges to myself in an effort to help and encourage our Book Culture to grow.
  Do you have any such pledges? I'd love to hear about them. Please share them in the Comments section of this post. Look forward to hearing from you all! And God Jol! (Good Yule) 📚🏔️📘🎀🥂🍖💌🎅📖🎄☃️🎁📙🍻🥧❄️📚