In my last post before Christmas, I’d like to pay tribute to Iceland’s heartwarming Christmas tradition of Jólabókaflóð – when everyone gives each other books on Christmas Eve, before curling up by the fire to read them.
Continue reading “The Gift That Keeps On Giving: Reading for Pleasure”
A post about my reading habits with top tips to make your own reading more fun this year
At the turn of the year, many people set themselves a reading goal in terms of quantity, eg “I will read 52 books in 2024”.
This always strikes me as an odd approach, because surely the joy of reading doesn’t increase according to quantity?
It’s not like pledging to lose x pounds in weight: a pound of flesh = a pound of flesh, (although a pound of muscle is very different from a pound of fat).
This numeric approach can distract people from thinking about how much they’ve enjoyed the books.
It risks turning reading into a box-ticking exercise rather than the adventure that it should be.
It also encourages readers who are running out of time to reach their goal to pick shorter books towards the end of the year, even when they might rather be getting stuck into a more substantial tome.
I do keep track of the books I’ve read, but only by keeping a list (unnumbered) in a little notebook, inspired by my mum, who has been doing this for years. I like being able to look back and remind myself what I’ve read, especially if I’ve forgotten a title and want to recommend it to a friend or to read more by the same author. The only other detail I include is the month in which I’ve read it.
Some months I read more books that others, because I choose books of different lengths and genres. I read non-fiction books more slowly that fiction, and because I usually find non-fiction more demanding, I tend to read fiction at the same time. Often I’ll read non-fiction in the morning, when my wits are more about me, and fiction in the evening to relax.
Influential factors are:
A little more explanation of “book tag” may be needed. For example, after reading Sathnam Sanghera’s history book, Empireland: How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain…
I started on Vaseem Khan’s cosy mystery set in modern India, The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra…
before travelling back in time to his historical novel set just after Indian independence and Partition, Midnight at Malabar House.
Although both Vaseem Khan’s books are first in series, and I plan to read the rest of the both series as I really enjoyed them, instead my next pick was Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, about a man born on the stroke of midnight of the day India gains independence.
I’m now thinking I might move on to another book that takes Midnight as its theme. Yes, I have already read Philippa Pearce’s Tom’s Midnight Garden, thank you! But I welcome any more suggestions!
It’s only now I realise that at least three of these books have won major prizes – but lists of prizewinners are never a starting point for me when I’m choosing what to read next.
How will you decide which books you’ll read in 2024? I’d love to know!
A few years ago, I was surprised to discover that there are a lot of readers out there who love to read box sets of ebooks, and who will buy box sets almost exclusively. When I say “box set”, there’s no physical box involved – ebook box sets are really just a collection of books sold as a single product. (Personally, I have a great fondness for physical box sets of print books, as I wrote about here, when I was self-publishing my first box set of ebooks years ago.)
I’m pleased to announce that Boldwood Books, who now publish all of my novels, have just launched not one but three new box sets of my books – two in the Sophie Sayers series and one for Gemma Lamb. These are all now available to buy on all the usual digital platforms. Just put my name and the series title into the search box of your favourite ebook store to order your copy now.
Next Wednesday I’ll be sharing a sneak preview of my next book, Driven to Murder, the ninth Sophie Sayers Cozy Mystery, which will be launched by Boldwood Books on Friday 26th January 2024. If you’d like Boldwood Books to email you about my new books, special offers and related competitions, you can sign up for their free mailng list here:
In the meantime, happy reading!
In this week’s post, I’m sharing news of a great cause that I’ve recently discovered called Read With Me.
Whether or not you have children of your own, I’m sure you’ll agree that anything that helps children to become competent and enthusiastic readers can only be a good thing. That’s why I really enjoyed my three years spent working for national children’s reading charity Read for Good.
While Read for Good does a great job at a national level by running sponsored Readathons in schools, Read With Me currently operates solely within Gloucestershire and sends adult volunteers into schools to hear children read one-to-one. This individual attention and social interaction makes a vast difference to children’s progress, especially to those who get little or no support at home.
Read With Me was founded by Linda Cohen of Wotton-under-Edge, just a few miles from where I live. As Linda explains on Read With Me’s website, children need to be able to communicate and to read. Without those basic skills their life opportunities are reduced and they face a bleak future. The inability to read will impact on not only their outcomes but those of their children.
Teachers and head teachers agree that the ability to read is the key to all learning.
Children who are unable to read properly by the age of 7 never catch up. In the UK, 1 in 5 children leave primary school unable to read. These children do less well at school, have dramatically reduced employment choices and earning opportunities, and a greater chance of going to prison. The UK has the worst literacy rates in the developed world.
In addition to attending school every day, ideally each child should have 15 minutes of one-to-one time when they can be heard to read by an adult and have verbal and social interaction. But with large class sizes and busy timetables, it’s nigh impossible for teachers to provide this.
Read With Me has therefore developed a unique programme where local employers give employees half an hour twice a week to hear two children read in their schools.
“It’s amazing how something so simple can be utterly transforming,” says Linda.
Linda started by rolling out Read With Me’s service in Gloucester, because it’s an area with a huge need. She will be extending the service across Gloucestershire, but Read With Me will also support anyone outside the area who wanted to set up something similar, even if it was only for their local school.
“We want to create a blueprint which everyone can use,” says Linda.
Outside of term time, Linda also organises The Not So Secret Book Club, offering some fabulous free opportunities for children to meet to read in Gloucester parks, providing free books so necessary when many children don’t have any books of their own at home. They offer a huge selection, from simple board books to teen fiction. They also have craft materials available and inspiration for simple creative projects, and story sessions too.
Although volunteers donate their time to Read With Me for free, the organisation needs to cover essential running costs. One of the ways Linda planned to raise funds this autumn was by selling Christmas cards, and three local shops had kindly agreed to stock them: Fish Out of Water, The Cotswold Book Room, and The Subscription Rooms in Stroud. Unfortunately, lockdown has temporarily put a stop to that.
In the meantime, young volunteers have set up an online shop to sell the cards, so below I’m sharing more details in case you’d like to support this great cause by placing an order.
Designer and illustrator Molly Bult created three designs in mixed media of gouache paint and digital collage using scanned materials, which have been printed on quality board with a choice of brown kraft or festive red envelopes. They are sold in packs of 9 for £3.99 each, or £10 for 3.
The Christmas cards are one of two festive initiatives to raise funds for Read With Me. There is also an online shop of stocking-filler toys, generously donated by the new proprietors of The Cotswold Book Room.
If you can help in any of these ways, please contact Linda via the Read With Me website.
Read on if you’d like to find out more about Read With Me via my informal interview with Linda and about the Christmas card designer Molly Bult, who has sent me her bio for anyone interested in her other design work.
It’s great to be able to sell Christmas cards and stocking filler toys online, but how do fundraise at other times of year?
We are a start-up, so fundraising is in the early stages. We’ve been established as a social enterprise, so the aim is to be relatively self-sufficient, but we’ve received some wonderful help from Gloucestershire Community Foundation. We’ve held a number of virtual events, including the Wotton 10k in which our supporters took part across the world, some even in Hong Kong – a combination of elite runners and some more sedate walkers who punctuated the walk with tea and cake stops.
What will the proceeds from the sales of Christmas cards and toys be used for?
The proceeds from the cards, like all the other money we raise, goes towards the shoestring running costs of delivering our service.
It only costs £50 a year to deliver twice-weekly sessions to each child, but we need to be able to support 500 more places immediately after Christmas.
You mentioned the three shops kindly stocking your cards, and the amazing contribution of stock by The Cotswold Book Room. Are there any particular local businesses that you’d like to mention as key supporters of the scheme?
Gloucester Services have been amazing. All their profits go back in to the community, so make that a destination stop for petrol! I’ve also set up reading schemes with partner schools for some of my PR clients.
What would Read with Me like from Santa this year?
I think Santa must have been operating throughout the year as we’ve already been the recipients of astonishing generosity from a number of the organisations and individuals, from teenagers to the retired.
The greatest gift would be the ability for our fantastic volunteers to all feel able to go back in to school safely and get on with their work.
However there is nothing to match the gift of a child’s face lighting up when they make a breakthrough or one of our littlest readers rushing to tell you that they’ve started reading at home.
Read With Me’s Christmas card designer Molly Bult shares her bio.
“Hi! I’m Molly, Manchester based illustrator and print designer behind Molly Emilia Rose. Coming from a printed textiles background, my designs are led by my passion for colour, texture and pattern. I love to create mixed media artwork, marrying both digital and analog techniques.
“Growing up in the South Wales countryside, my love of art and nature has grown hand in hand. My work is inspired by the biophilic connection we share with nature, a celebration of the abundance and variety of life and colour in the natural world.
“More recently, I have become fascinated with people, human interaction and relationships which you can see has fed into my portfolio of work – often with elements of humour thrown in!”
Follow Molly on Instagram at @
Thank you for reading this post – I hope it inspires you to help this excellent cause if you can, or to emulate its success in your neighbourhood. Please don’t hesitate to contact Linda for more information.
Debbie Young celebrates World Book Day, sharing the love of children’s books
Having spent the last four years gainfully employed at the British children’s reading charity Read for Good, it felt odd this year to be counting down the days to March (as I always do) without having to consider my World Book Day workload.
For those not familiar with World Book Day, it’s a UNESCO-led global celebration of reading which children take part in all over the, er, world.
Perversely, the UK celebrates it on a different day to the rest of the world, as the official day, April 23rd, usually clashes with British school holidays.
Most primary schools and many secondary schools celebrate World Book Day by staging all kinds of book-related events to make reading seem cool. (Incidentally I’m reliably informed by my 10-year-old daughter that it’s not cool for me to use the word “cool”.) This is because research shows that children who learn to love reading for pleasure grow up happier and more fulfilled in every respect. (Visit the Read for Good site for more information on that score.)
Readathon Gets Kids Reading for GoodRead for Good helps schools run a Readathon Sponsored Read by providing a colourful box of tricks free of charge. This enables teachers to get an easy tick on their World Book Day action list while actively enthusing their pupils to enjoy reading. The children choose what they want to be sponsored to read – much more motivating than reading what’s on their curriculum – and friends and family sponsor them. Most of the sponsorship money goes to help seriously ill children, partly through Read for Good’s fabulous ReadWell programme. The school also earns a book voucher to buy new school library books to the value of 20% of the total raised. What’s not to love about Readathon?
But unlike World Book Day, Readathon isn’t a once-a-year opportunity. Schools can run a Readathon any time of year that suits them – and they do. Some even set it as a school holiday challenge.
Around 3,000 school Readathons take place every year, benefiting seriously ill children. These children are helped partly through the charity’s ReadWell programme. ReadWell sends free books and storytellers to children in hospital all over the UK, making life better not only for the children but also their parents, carers and siblings. Getting lost in a good book is a great way to while away time in hospital and escape from pain, fear and anxiety surrounding hospital procedures.
Even though I left Readathon last autumn to concentrate full-time on my writing, I’m still flying the flag for recreational reading, for both children and adults.
Tomorrow I’ll be going into the village school that my daughter attends to get involved with their World Book Day celebrations. Hawkesbury Primary School has invited members of the community to come in to tell the children about their favourite books from their own childhood.
Mine was Teddy Robinson’s Omnibus by Joan G Robinson, whose central characters were a little girl called Deborah and a teddy bear that looks remarkably like my own. (Hmm, I wondered why I liked that book best?) I still have both the bear and the book, which displays evidence of my early hands-on approach to reading – some enthusiastic colouring of the line drawings in wax crayon.
After the school book-sharing session, I’ll be setting up a second-hand book stall in the school hall enabling the children to buy books at pocket-money prices to foster their own love of reading. It’s wonderful to think that tomorrow some of them may also find treasures they’ll still remember when they’re grown ups.
I must admit I still adore children’s books, which is one reason that I write a regular review feature in Today’s Child Magazine. For this issue, I’ve also written an article called “Make Reading Fun”, as featured on the cover. To read it, click on this link and flick to pages 12-13. (My book reviews are on pages 20-21).
But I’m also glad that there’s an equivalent for adults coming up soon: World Book Night, which even in the UK will be celebrated on the official day of April 23rd. World Book Night is a completely different event from World Book Day (yes, it is confusing!) More about that event nearer the time – or you can check out its website, www.worldbooknight.org.
Wondering how to celebrate World Book Day? Just share a good book with a child that you know. And to help other children throughout the UK, please consider making a donation to help ReadWell continue its good work, sharing the joy of books with children in hospital every day of the year. Donations may be made direct on ReadWell’s donations page here. No donation is too small.
But now, I’m off to find a comfy spot in which to read a good book…
