BOOKED

today i read a facebook status update from one 'fb friend' that this month of march the world celebrates world book day . how stupid of me. as much as i love reading (for pleasure i might add, although in this facefuckingbook era of distraction and short attention span disease , it's getting harder and harder to pleasure myself from reading books) i never realize till today that is, that we have a world book day. but i guess it's entirely understandable. having world book day that is. afterall we have just about world this or that day practically everyday.

it's good to know that book lovers and booktrade people celebrate this day in many different ways. i imagine some bookreading groups having their special gatherings . i imagine maybe sophie fucking kinsella brigade will have their own celebration by baking a cake in the form of the latest book by SFK and eat it. book stores will have special sales. A world book day website says that UK and ireland world book day was on 3rd of march and as the site puts it;

A main aim of World Book Day in the UK and Ireland is to encourage children to explore the pleasures of books and reading by providing them with the opportunity to have a book of their own.

i never thought the british children have any problem to 'have a book of their own' .that noble aim sounds very much like what countries in africa or fucking bangladesh ought to have. i would have thought for the uk, "opportunity to have a book of their own" should be replaced by say, ipads...

and here, how did we celebrate world book day? i'm not sure if we did anything. unless you count the launching of the ex pm's memoir as a part of the event or a 'game' posted on the status update of one of my 'fb friends'. the rule is to open to page 56 of the book nearest to you and write the 5th sentence and post it as your fb status update.

infantile, but could be quite a fun trivial pursuit with interesting result. the only problem is the nearest book anybody here have is probably in the town library. and this was amply demonstrated by the response to this fb friend's status update. out of twenty or so responses to his post, none did as required. all posted inane and unrelated comments.

but i could easily do this. i have here beside my bed a side table at arm's length away with four books on top of it.at the bottom of the stack is colin thubron's travel book the lost heart of asia,next is a small artbook 'flowers', on top of that is phillip larkin's "Required Writing" Miscellaneous Pieces 1955-1982, on top of that is Intercontinental's travel guide book 'Best of China' and the topmost and qualified as the nearest is a quarterly literary magazine 'Story' (summer 1996 issue).

i read somewhere sometimes ago that j d salinger's first fiction was published in 'story' and since then i religiously collect this magazine whenever i can find them. which is not easy as you can only find them in second hand payless book sales here. and even then quite rarely. stories in story rarely dissapoint. and the 5th sentence on page 56 of this volume is this . it is from a story "May be autumn is over ' by Jeff Maehre. It is his first published story.

I didn't know if I was standing over his spleen or stomach or eyeball or what.

now, don't say i did not celebrate world book day....