09/06/2026
National Read a Book Day, so here’s my actual nightstand. No styling, no props, that’s just where they live.
A Nook, because sometimes it’s 11:00 at night and I’m not turning the light back on. Remain – the Nicholas Sparks and M Night Shyamalan one, which is exactly as unlikely a pairing as it sounds. And One Summer in Savannah, which still has a library sticker on the spine.
That last one feels like the right one to be holding today.
Dolly Parton started her Imagination Library in 1995 because her own father never learned to read or write. A free book in the mail every month, birth to age 5, no income requirement, nothing to qualify for. Every single kid gets the same first one: The Little Engine That Could. (One of my favorites!) More than 16,000 of them right here in Johnson County.
She said being called “the book lady” was the thing that made her daddy proud of her. Of everything.
What’s on your nightstand? I’m always taking recommendations.
