Valentine’s Day Alternative: International Book Giving Day

It may come as a surprise, but I am not a fan of St Valentine’s Day.

Oh, I’m a huge fan of chocolate and good food and all the other bribes I am offered on a daily basis. But the idea of St Valentine’s Day just makes me feel… Ugh.

Could it be the overdose of saccharine-sweet marketing that blankets my shopping mall from mid-January right up to That Date? Possibly. I kind of hate marketing of any event. And most ads at this time of year are just tacky.

Am I a bitter old single woman? Oh, you’re adorable. Even though EG Dad is trained well enough to bring chocolate any time of year, I am also confident enough in myself to know how to order my chocolate online and delivered to my door. Plus the daily offerings from adoring minions.

And interestingly enough, a lot of my single friends care less about the day itself, and more about how to avoid smiting the clueless gits who keep asking them “So, do you have a special someone for Valentine’s Day?”

Smite away, my dear friends. I have plenty of “Valentine’s Day” chocolate-flavored popcorn for the show.

But hark! What light through yonder Tinder-app break? It is an alternative to Valentine’s Day!!

Let’s hear it for International Book Giving Day!!

It’s a movement that started back in 2012, and only asks for you to do one of three things:

1) gift a book to a friend or family member,

2) leave a book in a waiting room for children to read

3) donate a gently used book to a local library, hospital or shelter or to an organization that distributes used books to children in need internationally.

The official International Book Giving Day website has a whole bunch of links to make this even easier for you. They have bookmarks to download; messages to leave within your gifts; posters to put up around your library.

So if you really feel the pressure to give a gift on Valentine’s Day, give a book. Give it to your loved one. Give it to your nagging mother (or mother-in-law). Give it to your ex (and please share a pic of that message).

Or best of all, give it to a library or children’s literacy program to encourage more people to read and develop their own feelings about these ‘special days’. Because I don’t want to convert everyone to my way of thinking (just yet)—I truly believe everyone should make their own decision on whether to celebrate this day. Prove me wrong by sending me a chocolate book. *evil grin*

By the way, you can always celebrate both. I mean seriously, who wouldn’t want to receive a Nightwing comic on Valentine’s Day?