August 9th, 2025, was Book Lovers Day, an unofficial holiday set aside to celebrate bibliophiles internationally.
And yes, everywhere you turned on social media, it was one post or the other to commemorate the event. While it’s a good thing to remind the world once a year that being a reader isn’t something to be ashamed of, book lovers deserve to be celebrated every day.
Apart from celebrating book lovers, the general idea of Book Lovers Day is to put phones, gadgets and mobile devices away, in favor of curling up somewhere with a book. While this isn’t technically a practical idea (it’s an unofficial holiday, after all), it’s a reminder of the world we live in, and how difficult it is, even among many book lovers, to remember to pick up a book.
With so many movies and games to enjoy, as well as the millions of videos generated by content creators on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube on a daily basis, literature is fast becoming the second, third, or fourth favorite hobby for many, if at all.
For many, social media “reading” has replaced paperbacks. News articles, blog posts, academic papers and web content can be great sources of literature. However, the truth is that fondness for creative works is dwindling.
Many would rather get their “creative” experiences from movies and ever-changing social media trends, rather than books.
It’s not even scholarly-exclusive knowledge anymore that social media use is linked to decreasing attention span.
Even when reading a physical book, the mere buzz of a mobile device is enough to draw the attention, often for several minutes each time. The lure of the endless, mindless scroll means that social media acts like a psychoactive drug, irresistible and addictive.
While investigative studies are not conclusive on whether social media use is directly linked to this “brain rot,” it is clear that certain modern trends and reading do not mix.
In many circles, reading continues to be seen as a luxury, a hobby for the privileged, who have hours to spare to enjoy the relative “inactivity.”
This theory is partly reinforced by the rising cost of books, which, particularly in low-income countries, severely limits the accessibility of literature and gives rise to book piracy.
Of course, there are sheer economic factors to be considered. Global socio-political upheavals mean that more effort than ever goes into making a living. Coupled with the everyday cares of life, which by no means reduce as one ages, we’re left with a population that reads less with each passing day.
National Book Lovers Day should not only be a celebration of bibliophiles, but a reminder of the transformative power of literature.
The capacity of literature to revolutionize minds and equip the intellect remains fundamental to the development of human cultures and holds the key to socio-political emancipation.
As such, every day should be treated as Book Lovers Day, with everyone perpetually conscious of the need to read daily, even if it’s just a page or a paragraph of literature.
