From Burns Night to Book Flood (January to December) there are countless reasons to celebrate words, reading, stories in all forms. Always adding, editing, and revising, this list is a work in progress In a way, it is a labor of love, finding more reasons to just keep reading.
I cannot lay claim to creatingthese lists. The original list itself is from the website On the Cobblestone Road. The rest I have added from a variety of sources. See Source list at the end.
January
January is National Book Blitz Month
Jan 2: National Science Fiction Day
Jan 3: J.R.R. Tolkien Day
Jan 9: National Word Nerd Day
Jan 9-15: Universal Letter Writing Week (Second full week of January)
Jan 11: Poetry at Work Day (Second Tuesday of January)
Jan 16: Book Publishers Day
Jan 18: National Thesaurus Day | Winnie the Pooh Day (author A. A. Milne‘s birthday)
Jan 23: National Handwriting Day
Jan 25: Burns Supper, aka Burns Night, in honor of the poet, Robert Burns’, birthday)
Jan 26: Library Shelfie Day (fourth Wednesday of January)
Sources:
February
Feb 1: Robinson Crusoe Day
Feb 14: International Book-Giving Day
Feb 20: Clean Out Your Bookcase Day
Feb 26: Tell a Fairy Tale Day
March - Small Press Month
Mar 4 - National Grammar Day
Mar 5-11 - Return Borrowed Books Week
Mar 14 - National Write Your Story Day
Mar 30 - National Pencil Day
April - National Poetry Month
April 17 - International Haiku Poetry Day
April 18 - National Columnist Day
April 23 - Shakespeare Day | Talk Like Shakespeare Day | World Book and Copyright Day
April 23-29 - National Library Week
April 30 - Independent Bookstore Day (Last Saturday of April)
April 8 , 2024 - Total Eclipse
April 15, 2024 - Tax Day, US
May
May 1: Mother Goose Day
May 2: International Harry Potter Day (Anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts)
May 2-8: Children’s Book Week
May 3: World Press Freedom Day
May 5: National Cartoonists Day
May 6: National Scrapbook Day | Free Comic Book Day (First Saturday of May)
May 9: Peter Pan Day
May 12: National Limerick Day
May 16: National Biographer’s Day
May 22: Sherlock Holmes Day
May 25: Towel Day (in honor of author Douglas Adams)
June
July
September
September 13 is Roal Dahl day. He gave us great children's books Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and James and the Giant Peach.
September 24 is National Punctuation Day.
September 25-30: Banned Books Week (Last week of September)
October
Oct 1: National Poetry Day
Oct 2-8: National Newspaper Week (Starts on the first Sunday of October)
Did you know: (from National Day Calendar) https://www.nationaldaycalendar.com/october/national-newspaper-week-first-sunday-in-october
Some of the earliest newspaper publishers had a second job as postmasters.
Oldest continually published newspaper began in 1764, the Hartford Currant
Sensationalized newspaper reporting is called “yellow journalism.”
Oct 2-8: Mystery Series Week (First full week of October)
Oct 6: Mad Hatter Day
Wear a hat
Read passages from Alice in Wonderland.
Oct 11: Myths and Legends Day
Oct 16: Dictionary Day
Birth of Noah Webster in 1758 in Hartford, CT, whose first dictionary was published in 1806.
Read The Professor and The Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary. By Simon Winchester. New York: HarperCollins Publisher, 1998. This is the true story of two men, their relationship to one another, and the relationship of both to the Oxford English dictionary.
Watch the 2019 movie, The Professor and the Madman,
Oct 16-22: Friends of Libraries Week (Third week of October)
Oct 17: Black Poetry Day
Oct 20: National Day on Writing
Oct 28: Frankenstein Friday (Last Friday in October)
Oct 31: Books for Treats Day
November
National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) National Family Literacy Month National Life Writing Month Picture Book Month
Nov 3: National Nonfiction Day (First Thursday of November)
Nov 6-12: International Games Week | Children’s Book Week
Nov 8: Young Readers Day (Second Tuesday of November)
Nov 14-18: National Young Readers Week | World Nursery Rhyme Week | National Book Awards Week (Third week in November)
Nov 15: I Love to Write Day
Nov 18: High Five a Librarian Day
Nov 20-26: National Bible Week
Nov 21-27: Book Week Scotland
December
Dec 7: Letter Writing Day
Dec 10: Dewey Decimal System Day
Dec 21: Crossword Puzzle Day | National Short Story Day | Phileas Fogg Win a Wager Day (from Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne)
Dec 24:Jolabokaflod, Iceland. Read the you received during the Christmas Book Flood, Jólabókaflóðið, Jolabokaflod
Dec 25: A’phabet Day or No L Day (Pun Day — “No L” = Noel… get it?)
Sources:
last revised: 01/29/2024 by SMB