A love/hate reading guide to Valentine's Day

Submitted by Bailey Wallace on Jan 30 2015

Let’s be honest. Valentine’s Day is not everyone’s favorite holiday. In fact, I hear more people on Facebook, Twitter, at work, and at school state negative things about this holiday than any other: “Happy Single-Awareness Day”; "A day created by Hallmark to sell cards and chocolate”; “Why have one day to celebrate who you love? You should be doing it all year!”

However, it is a holiday that has morphed into celebrating love and love is something I truly believe in. I think it is awesome that love is special and important enough to people that it has its very own day of celebration. I used to get excited about handing out Valentine cards – I mean, really, those things are adorable. I’m disappointed that some people feel lonely on this day because they don’t have a special someone. This day is not only about celebrating the love in relationships, but celebrating love in general. It is a day to be a tad nicer to people. It is a day to take your dog on a longer walk because you love them and want to make them happy. It is a day to be thoughtful and reflect on those people who mean something to you. Valentine’s Day is a day to remind you that love exists in many ways and forms and that is worth celebrating.

To all of you Valentine haters, I encourage you to slightly shift your perception of the holiday this season and maybe just smile more on February 14. To all of you Valentine lovers, I encourage you to break out of your usual February 14 traditions (like posting 10 billion pictures of the flowers you got from your special someone on Facebook) and make or create something awesome for someone you don’t think about often, but who totally deserves it.

Additionally, think about falling in love with a book. Here's my Love/Hate Holiday Book List. Half of the titles are for the haters and half are for the lovers.