Monday 27 May 2013

Did you wear your towel on May 25?

DON’T PANIC!‘ in the immortal words of Douglas Adams from The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, I forgot too! Never mind, we all get another chance same time next year.

For those of you who may wonder what on earth this peculiar idea is all about, towel day celebrates the life and works of the above mentioned Douglas Adams (1952-2001). http://towelday.org/
I was lucky enough to discover his quirky sense of humour as a teenager when I first read The Hitch Hikers Guide and its “trilogy in five parts”. I then followed along eagerly each week for the next installment of the TV series and finally the movie when it was at last released in 2005. By then my eldest son had reached his teens and also appreciated the humour of Douglas Adams. It was wonderful to be able to share the experience of  both the book and film with him. I’m sure he didn’t forget to wear his towel on Saturday, but as he now lives on the opposite side of the country to me he neglected to remind me. As a starving uni student he had even been known to attend fancy dress parties dressed as Arthur Dent in his dressing gown and towel.
Authors and their characters can have such an impact on our lives. Take J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter for example. Think of how many children all around the world have found the delight of books and reading through her wonderful imagination and story telling. It was amazing to watch thoussands of children dress up as theri favourite characters each time a new book or movie was released.
I believe it is wonderful to see our children reading no matter what the genre.  All fantastic authors need to be celebrated and thanked for bringing joy, imagination, entertainment and knowlede to our youth. Most of us have memories of growing up reading at least one favourite special author. That may change as we grow from childhood to our teenage years, my sons went from Paul Jennings to John Marsden and on to Douglass Adams with a whole lot of other fantastic authors in between including J.K. Rowling. At least their tastes were varied so that they read a wide range of material on offer and kept an open mind to the possibilties of the delights of different genres.
Is there a special place in your heart for a particular author that brought meaning to reading while you grew up? Do you ever take a moment to celebrate or thank that author for their work? I’d love to hear who it was and why?
Thanks to my awesome blogging freind JR Baker for reminding me about this  years Towel Day. http://jrbarker101.wordpress.com/2013/05/25/happy-towel-day-the-awesome-power-of-reading/
I’d like to close with one last quote from Douglass Adams, “So long and thanks for all the fish!’

Have fun reading.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbGNcoB2Y4I
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