The National Year of Reading 2026

"The National Year of Reading 2026 is the biggest campaign in a generation designed to help more people (re)discover the joy of reading and make it part of their everyday lives." (The National Literacy Trust, 2026)

Reading for pleasure has decreased significantly in the last few years with the latest statistics from the National Literacy Trust (2026) showing:

• Just 1 in 3 (32.7%) children and young people aged 8 to 18 said that they enjoyed reading in their free time in 2025. This marks a 36% decrease in reading enjoyment levels since recording began in 2005.

• Only 1 in 5 (18.7%) say they read something daily in their free time.

Another worrying statistic pertains to adult literacy rates- there are 2.4 million adults in England alone who can barely read or cannot read at all (Skills for Life Survey, 2011, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills)

The most recent data published by the Ministry of Justice shows that 57% of adult prisoners taking initial assessments had literacy levels below those expected of an 11-year-old.

You might be wondering why reading for pleasure is such a big deal- its just books and stuff, right?

Reading for pleasure is proven to improve key skills needed to navigate the world and interact with those around us. These include skills like empathy, confidence and critical thinking; as well as building a more expansive vocabulary, forging social connections and enhancing mental health. (BookTrust, 2026)

Paper Tales has pledged their support to the campaign in a number of ways to encourage reading for pleasure in the local community, as well as increasing accessibility to Bristol's literary scene.

Our biggest commitment to increasing accessibility remains the annual Festival of Stories we organise. The event itself is free to attend with storytelling performances, indie authors, free and affordable writing workshops, craft activities and immersive fairy tale decor. With a diverse line-up of activities including a Drag Story-time for kids, talks about the realities of life as an immigrant and poetry for people with neuro-divergence, this event aims to forge connections across generations, cultures and life experiences.

Another pledge we have made is to re-establish a book swap inside SPARKS to encourage book sharing, free access to good books and to divert books from landfill. Children's books will also be available with a cosy area for families to spend time in. The plans include introducing multi-lingual books for those learning English and creating book clubs that spark discussions about important topics.

Is it coincidence that at the same time reading for pleasure has decreased, communities have become more divided, impatient and misinformation shared so readily? We think not...

Encouraging reading for pleasure and connections through stories might just be the key to strengthening communities, opening conversations and challenging each other to be better. My hope for this campaign over the next year is that we start to see a more visible societal shift towards embracing difference; fuelling curiosity about experiences beyond our own and using critical thinking more sparingly to form opinions about the world around us.

"If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking." - Haruki Murakami