Live with more books than you read.

Today is National Book Lovers Day. I happen to be a book lover, so I obviously agree with this quote about owning as many books as possible:

"He should live with more books than he reads, with a penumbra of unread pages, of which he knows the general character and content, fluttering round him. This is the purpose of libraries.... It is also the purpose of good bookshops, both new and secondhand, of which there are still some, and would that there were more. A bookshop is not like a railway booking-office which one approaches knowing what one wants. One should enter it vaguely, almost in a dream, and allow what is there freely to attract and influence the eye.

"To walk the rounds of the bookshops, dipping in as curiosity dictates, should be an afternoon's entertainment. Feel no shyness or compunction in taking it. Bookshops exist to provide it; and the booksellers welcome it, knowing how it will end."

--Economist John Maynard Keynes, as quoted in a Canberra Times piece headlined "Bookshops about more than just purchasing."

Unfortunately many children around the world do not have the luxury of being able to live with more books than they can read...some of them may not have any books at all. But an inspirational company called Out of Print  exists to try and change that.  They make adorable shirts like the one below featuring a classic and fashionable book cover (To Kill a Mockingbird happens to be one of my all time favourites).  For each shirt sold, they donate a book to a child through their partnership with Books for Africa.  

$28 shop here 

If you don't have extra cash to buy a cute T, you can still make a difference by "liking" Out of Print on Facebook. For each "like" they receive, they will donate one book to a child as well.  That's a great way to celebrate national book lovers day if you ask me. :)