Today, in the UK and Ireland at least, it is World Book Day. Other countries celebrate on 23 April 2024, the day that both William Shakespeare and Miguel Cervantes Saavedra (the author of Don Quixote) died. But, to avoid a clash with school holidays, a different date was chosen in the UK.

March is also National Reading Month, though it seems there are various different times during the year when we are encouraged to enjoy books, with World Book Month being celebrated in October. (It feels like everything has its own day of month these days!)

Anyway, anytime is a good time to read and as a book lover but lapsed reader, I decided this was the month that I would encourage myself to pick up a book rather than my phone.

I wrote about World Book Day and my love of books a few years ago when I previously tried to use today as the catalyst to get me reading. I’ve bought plenty more books since then but I haven’t read many – or at least haven’t finished reading many. I seem to have a habit of starting a book, get engrossed in it for a period of time, and then I get distracted, put it down and it ends up on the pile of ‘to finish reading’ books.

This year is no exception. I started the year reading 4,000 Weeks, something that had been on my to read list for a while, and I was instantly hooked. I got to chapter 10 and for some reason it got put down and it’s taken me a while to pick it up again.

I also decided this would be the year I would read The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron. Written as a 12 week course, the book aims to “help people with artistic creative recovery” teaching “techniques and exercises to assist people in gaining self-confidence in harnessing their creative talents and skills.” Again, it’s been on my to read list for a couple of years, and whilst in a bookshop with a friend in December we decided we would both read it to hold each other to account. She has got much further with it than me…

At home there are always too many distractions and other hobbies that I want to do instead. I’ve come away for a few days though and have left those other hobbies behind with the intention that I’ll use some of this downtime to re engross myself with one of these books. I’ve also brought Miriam Margoyles book “This Much Is True” for a bit of light entertainment. Let’s see how I get on.

What are you reading right now? I’m always looking for new recommendations.