Pizza and Books...Mmmmm

Pizza Hut's Book-It program turned 30 this year. In celebration of this milestone, they've created an alumni program that allows those adults who feel nostalgic about their youth to sign up, place themselves on the Book-It map, and receive a free personal pan pizza.

I immediately signed up. I loved Book-It as a kid. It combined two of my favorite things in life: reading and pizza.

I really don't remember the details of how the program worked. Something along the lines that you read a book, your teacher signed off that you read the book, and then you took the paper to Pizza Hut, where they gave you a gold star sticker each visit that you brought in a signed sheet of paper. The gold star sticker went on a bluish/purplish hologram button that said "Book-It". I think 5 gold star stickers meant your Book-It button was full, and you received a free personal pan pizza. A small pizza that was all yours for the selection of one-topping (for me, always pepperoni) and consumption. God, I loved that program.

The other added bonus was the button with the gold star stickers. For a dorky little kid like me, I loved those buttons. I totally rocked those buttons on my jean jacket, along with my other buttons. At the height of my jean jacket button craze, I must have had at least 25 buttons on the front of my jacket, at which any given time three of them were Book-It buttons. I was a bright, shiny elementary school kid that jingled, jangled, and clanked as I walked. (And you thought the flare at Chotchikie's in Office Space was excessive.) I'm surprised my mom didn't take a magnet to me just to stop the noise of my jean jacket.

Although Book-It has the alumni program, I wish they would institute a reading program for adults. Once again combining my two favorite things: reading and pizza. I realize that the program was intended to motivate kids to read, but think of the motivation that we sometimes need as adults to read a book for the hell of it. The close of a long work day doesn't always leave one inspired to read. More often than not, I find myself falling asleep while reading when trying to tackle a book at night. And I still love to read.

So in my mind, I'm giving myself a gold star sticker for the next few months with every book I read. And once I hit that magical five golden star sticker mark, I'm taking my adult self to Pizza Hut for a personal pan pizza. With pepperoni. While wearing my adult-sized, Gap jean jacket. And I'll find a few buttons to wear as I take myself to Pizza Hut. Just like I did when I was ten.