OOO two blog posts in one day, yowza! So I would like to tell you about our special event for tomorrow's World Book Night.  First of all, I'll tell you a little about World Book Night itself.

From the website, www.worldbooknight.org:

"World Book Night is an annual celebration of reading and books which takes place on 23 April. It sees passionate volunteers give hundreds of thousands of books away in their communities to share their love of reading with people who, for whatever reason, don’t read for pleasure or own books. 

It is run by The Reading Agency - the charity with a mission to give everyone an equal chance to become a reader. Because everything changes when we read.

In the UK 35% of people don’t regularly read despite reading for pleasure being a globally recognised indicator in a huge range of social issues from poverty to mental health.

World Book Night is about giving books and encouraging those who have lost the love of reading – or are yet to gain it – to pick up a book and read. Line by line, paragraph by paragraph until they too have discovered the power of reading and the opportunities in life that reading can open the door to."

Venus took part in World Book Night for the first time last year and we loved being able to help the individuals who access our services discover the joy and escapism that reading can provide.

I attended a conference recently where the subject of reading aloud was discussed.  Reading aloud in groups can be extremely therapeutic for people with depression, anxiety or other poor mental health conditions.  Being read to is soothing and allows your imagination to supplement the story you are hearing.  With this in mind, we will be reading aloud the first chapters of the 4 books we are giving away.  We hope this will spark conversations and ignite interest in the books.  What happens next??!

Our 4 books are:

• The Humans by Matt Haig
• Hello Mum by Bernadine Evaristo
• Geezer Girls by Dreda Say Mitchell
• Getting Rid of Matthew by Jane Fallon

​You're welcome to join us tomorrow evening from 5.15pm at the Venus Centre, 215 Linacre Lane, Bootle, L20 6AD.  We will be sharing refreshments and our love of a good read!