The National Year of Reading has launched with support from the National Literacy Trust, football figures and writers, encouraging people of all ages to read for pleasure. The campaign is real. A fictional blank book has accepted the applause and asked whether the football can write its foreword.
National Year of Reading opens with a very confident book
The campaign aims to reconnect children, families and communities with reading. It responds to a decline in reading for pleasure among young people. The empty book has taken this personally and announced that it can inspire a nation if somebody would kindly put something inside it.
The launch connects reading with everyday interests including football, music, films, food and family time. That can help people find reading that matters to them. At the imaginary Department of Quiet Applause, a blank bookmark has started scouting talent among the punctuation.
A real campaign meets a book with a publicist
The government and National Literacy Trust want the year to encourage reading in whatever form works for people. That includes novels, comics, online writing and electronic readers. Meanwhile, the football has requested a reading list with fewer tactics and more dramatic plot twists.
First, a reader finds something interesting. Next, they make time to read it. Then they discover another book. Finally, the blank book asks whether discovery can be arranged around its publicity schedule. Nobody replies because the lamp has entered a book club.
Reading for pleasure can support language, confidence and connection. The campaign calls on schools, libraries, businesses and families to help. The fictional book understands none of the evidence. It has simply put on a dust jacket and begun practising a speech about its journey.
By the end of the launch, the football remained unread and the blank book remained blank. Both looked delighted. The bookmark called this a promising first chapter.
Source: UK Government.
