The National Year of Reading and My 2012 Reading Challenge

If you're not already aware 2012 is The National Year of Reading in Australia. Many of my customers and friends have been asking me just what this campaign is all about and I've had to admit to being ignorant of exactly what the initiative is trying to achieve. Now, having done some research, I thought what better way to answer your questions than to blog about it. 

Basically, The National Year of Reading is all about helping people to discover the magic of books, or if you've already got a solid relationship with the written word, it's about finding new inspiration in the books you choose to read. The slogan of the campaign is "Love 2 Read" and the focus is all about Australians becoming a nation of readers. Statistics on literacy and fluency within the Australian population are not flattering and in response to these findings the initiative has identified three goals to help change the reading culture of our country. The goals are listed below and have been copied directly from The National Year of Reading website.

• For all Australians to understand the benefits of reading as a life skill and a catalyst for well-being;
• To promote a reading culture in every home; and
• To establish an aspirational goal for families, of parents and caregivers sharing books with their children every day.

There are events happening all over the country in support of the campaign. If you'd like more information on these events, or the campaign itself, I suggest you click through to The National Year of Reading website. 

 

Personally, I've decided to do my little bit to support the campaign by setting myself a reading challenge for 2012. As a book seller you would think I read a lot and I do read quite a bit, but not as much as I would like to. The truth is that I'm sometimes so busy with selling books that the time available to read them is just not there. So this year I'm aiming for more of a balance. Last night I set myself up an account on Good Reads which is an international social networking site for book lovers. Good Reads have a reading challenge widget, so I used it to set myself the goal of reading 100 books in 2012. That's about two per week and I'm already right on track. You'll notice the widget on the right side of my blog showing you this information. I'm pretty confident I can reach the target and depending on how I'm going might even raise the bar half way through the year. This is something anyone can do, so if you're looking for something to do to support The National Year of Reading, or if you'd just like to set yourself a reading goal for 2012, why don't you join me on Good Reads and set-up an account. You can view my profile by using this link - http://www.goodreads.com/readinghabit.

 

If you're doing something else to support The National Year of Reading in Australia, I'd love to hear about it, so make sure you leave a comment here. As a business, Reading Habit Online Second Hand Bookstore will be supporting the campaign by striking up a relationship with the Indigenous Literacy Foundation, but more on that later.