National Book Month and National Book Blitz Month are both celebrated in January.  National Book Month is sponsored by the National Book Foundation.  The idea behind National book Month is to invite everyone to take time to read a book. National Book Blitz Month being a little different was created by a public relations executive to encourage authors to promote their own books.  As I see it, a little self-promotion never hurt anyone.

For those who have followed this site and others I write for {TJED Mothers, A Homemaking Journey, and the Homemaking Cottage Blog} may recognized my passion for books as well as a love of life-long learning and education.  Even if you don’t homeschool or have children, you can enjoy books of all types, but I always recommend the classic books mixed with high quality newer books.  The average person reads 2,000 books in his/her lifetime.  Personally, I’d rather spend my time reading books that are life-changing and that are high quality with my average several thousand books.

Recommended Reading Lists for youth & children:

http://www.sonlight.com/request-catalog.html

http://www.clau.org/books

Recommended Classic Book lists for adults

http://www.cincinnatilibrary.org/booklists/?id=classics

http://www.eagleforum.org/educate/1997/june97/list.html

Since January is also the first month of the year and a perfect time for goal setting, why not set your 2012 reading goals this month?  Even if you set it high and don’t reach it, at least you have something to aim for.

Are you a book collector?  What a perfect time to go through your shelves to find books you haven’t read yet.  You could even make one of your bookshelves dedicated to the books you plan to read this year.

I have a pretty hard-bound notebook I purchased at Barnes and Noble that is my “book” notebook.  In this notebook I keep track of what I’ve read and what I want to read.  I have pages with book wish lists for me, for my husband, and for my kids.  If we are working on collecting a series of books like Nancy Drew or The Bobbsey Twins, we tear out the back page of one of the books that lists the series and mark what we have.  My daughter sometimes stars what she would like next, if possible.  I keep these series lists in this same notebook.  It’s small enough to slip in my purse and easy to tote along to bookstores.

However you choose to celebration National Book Month and National Book Blitz Month hopefully you find some renewed interest in reading books or a spark for a trying out a new book or two.