Two major holidays were celebrated over the weekend:

August 8 is National Sneak Some Zucchini Into Your Neighbor’s Porch Day. It was created by Tom Roy who, with his wife Ruth, has created lots of different holidays. I feel a close connection to them as they lived for many years in Mt. Gretna, Pennsylvania, one of my favorite places on earth. Enjoy this video I made in 2013! I found it when I was searching for blog posts and had long forgotten about it.

August 9 is National Book Lovers Day. I often joke that my husband convinced me to move into our old, sometimes challenging farmhouse, because it had a library where my books could be out for the world to see. I have had a lifelong love affair with books and a few of those on my shelves have been with me for decades. Now, as we consider downsizing, I am considering how to cull what has become a sprawling collection that long ago outgrew the library. There seem to be books everywhere!

Giving away books I have read is no problem. But, it may be time to give away books that I haven’t read. As I sort through piles, I consider the possibility that I will probably never read certain books. It may be time to release them to the wild to find someone who will read them. So far, it hasn’t been as hard as I thought it would be. Some books just don’t speak to me the way they did when I acquired them. And, unlike when I began my book collecting, books are widely available at the click of a button. I don’t have to worry that losing the physical book means never having the opportunity to read it.

The hardest pile to whittle has been the professional books. I have a collection of some classic books about educational technology including manuals for teaching with this new thing called the Internet. I will share some of the titles in a future blog post.

Meanwhile, it is not too late to share some zucchini with your neighbor before curling up with a good book. And, if you are intrigued by these holidays, you can browse the full calendar at National Day Calendar.