Back in September, New York City played host to the illustrious Mercedes Benz Fashion Week.  I didn’t blink an eye.  (What do I know about Jimmy Choos?  I’m more of a flip-flops girl…)  This week, though, the book world descends upon the Big Apple.  And I’m getting very excited!

Now, I don’t think that I can really afford to attend the $1000 a plate dinner at the prestigious National Book Awards ceremony on November 18th (I also don’t think that they’d appreciate gate crashers).  So I’ll probably have to content myself with checking out how the nominees stack up (you can read more about them here), and keeping an eye on the Publisher’s Weekly website to see who’s won.

With book reading on the decline across the nation, it’s nice to have big, annual events like the National Book Awards – or the National Jewish Book Awards, the American Library Association Awards, the Pulitzer Prize… – to remind the public that there are still great books out there, waiting to be read.  In an age where portable devices allow us to watch movies on the go, where television programs can be streamed over the internet, and where the average attention span seems to have been reduced to -

- Hey!  Over here!  I’m not done yet… as I was saying, in an age where your average American no longer seems willing to sit still for long enough to read an actual book, it’s good to remind people that great literature didn’t end with The Great Gatsby.  Great literature and powerful works of nonfiction are still being churned out every day, folks.  The National Book Awards give us a moment to recognize that.

Now all we need to do is go the next step beyond recognizing that great books are still being published today, and actually get out and read them!

So if you’ll excuse me, I have a date with my paperback.
-Naomi