National Read A Book Day 2017: 10 Inspiring Quotes For Book Lovers

It's a day for book lovers and all of you who are into reading, don't just read it to yourself, but also to others as it's National Read a Book Day on Wednesday. Read a Book Day is celebrated on Sept. 6 every year and on this day everyone grabs their favorite book.

Read a Book day started around the end of the first decade of the 2000s and was likely a proposal made by a librarian who wanted to encourage youngsters to read more. While the day does not make it mandatory for everyone to read a book, it serves as a motivation to people to read a part of the book which they enjoyed a lot. They can read those books with children or they can even donate a book to a children's school library. Some can ponder upon the idea of hosting a book reading party as well.

So, why read a book? A 2009 study by the University of Sussex, as reported by The Telegraph, suggested that reading for just six minutes can help reduce stress levels by up to 68 percent. The research found that reading is better when it comes to soothing your nerves and it acts faster than listening to music, going for a walk or settling down with a cup of tea, the research found.

"Reading worked best, reducing stress levels by 68 per cent," said cognitive neuropsychologist Dr. David Lewis. "It really doesn't matter what book you read, by losing yourself in a thoroughly engrossing book you can escape from the worries and stresses of the everyday world and spend a while exploring the domain of the author's imagination," Lewis said.

When reading books to your children, you can read books that illustrate a sequence of actions that your child can easily follow. You can also select those books that have colorful illustrations and minimal text. To make your child more involved in the reading process, you can teach him to be the story teller and make comments about the pictures and then wait for your child's response. Address his doubts and build upon a communication channel with him wherein he becomes more curious about the contents of the book.

To get inspired to read more, here are some of the inspiring quotes from Goodreads and BrainyQuote:

1. Maybe this is why we read, and why in moments of darkness we return to books: to find words for what we already know. — Alberto Manguel

2. I hope everyone that is reading this is having a really good day. And if you are not, just know that in every new minute that passes you have an opportunity to change that. — Gillian Anderson

3. Children should learn that reading is a pleasure, not just something that teachers make you do in school. — Beverly Cleary

4. [I] read books because I love them, not because I think I should read them. — Simon Van Booy

5. Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours. — John Locke

6. A book lying idle on a shelf is wasted ammunition. Like money, books must be kept in constant circulation... A book is not only a friend, it makes friends for you. When you have possessed a book with mind and spirit, you are enriched. But when you pass it on you are enriched threefold. — Henry Miller

7. You can't judge an album by a single song; it's like judging a book by only reading a single chapter. —Trevor Rabin

8. I read like the flame reads the wood. — Alfred Döblin

9. If you have read 6,000 books in your lifetime, or even 600, it's probably because at some level you find 'reality' a bit of a disappointment. — Joe Queenan

10. Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. — Joseph Addison