An ingenious way to encourage diverse reading….

A local library has compiled a set of challenges to encourage its members to broaden their literary horizons. I was quite taken by the idea when told about it and thought it worthy  of a mention.

Libraries across the UK face a funding problem, fewer people are using them and that is a great shame. As a child, my week was made by a visit to the library, I could spend hours in there wandering up and down the aisles and finding books on travel to faraway places, young adult thrillers to spark the imagination. It  was all there and helped shape my fertile mind and education.

But now I seldom visit and feel a sense of guilt about that, I have supported bookshops for many years but the library became a childhood memory. Now they provide internet availability for those without as well as a warm respite from the world outside, technology may have improved but the core reason for a library’s  existence has not.

So the challenge the library set is to read a book which covers each of the following criteria;

1. A book read before but a long time ago
2. A book that was once banned
3. The first book in a series
4. A book by an author you have never read before
5. A book that has been made into a film or TV series
6. A book set in your holiday destination
7. A book by an author from another country
8. A book about the future-dystopian, utopian or realistic
9. A book set n the past
10. A book you consider a guilty pleasure.

It’s a very good challenge, I shall set about my choices forthwith, feel free to post yours in the comments section below.