My (almost) 5-year-old niece, Ángela, reminded me recently via facetime that April 23rd is El Día del Libro (Book Day). She knows it very well because that’s also her cumpleaños (birthday). El Día del Libro is widely celebrated in Spain; in school Ángela might talk about su cuento favorito (her favorite fairytale); she might make a special visit to la biblioteca (the library); she might make un marcador de libros (bookmark) or visit next weekend la feria del libro (the book fair) with her parents and siblings.
In Barcelona El Día del Libro receives the name of El Dia de San Jordi (Saint George´s Day) because the festivity to honor this saint is also celebrated on April 23rd. On that date books occupy Las Ramblas (one of the main avenues in Barcelona) where los barceloneses (citizens of Barcelona) pasean (take a walk) among los puestos de libros (book stands). They browse books; buy some; and look for their favorite authors who might be firmando (signing) their works. However, this is not all there is, San Jordi is also a romantic festivity whose tradition mandates that women give books to men and men give roses to women. Wouldn´t it be nice to establish the tradition of exchanging libros y rosas everywhere? In New York I would close Broadway to the traffic and transform it into Bookway.
A more realistic way of celebrating El Día del Libro this year could be to read un libro en español. I suggest that you, my dear lectores (readers), choose a book that you have already read in English, that way, the daunting task of reading in a foreign language would be more pleasurable. I´m going to recommend you three novelas (novels) that have touched me deeply and that you can easily find in Spanish: La carretera (The Road) by Cormac McCarthy, Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, and La Breve y maravillosa vida de Oscar Wao (The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao) by Junot Diaz. ¡A disfrutar leyendo! (Have fun reading!)
