Philippa Cochrane: Venture out of your comfort zone for Book Week Scotland

Scotland's national celebration of reading, Book Week Scotland, is well and truly under way this week. On the first day, Scottish Book Trust released the results of a recent Ipsos mori poll which found that crime is by far and away the most popular fiction genre in Scotland. The survey also found that almost 80 per cent of Scots read or listen to books for enjoyment, with nearly half of them doing so every day. We are clearly a nation that enjoys reading, but is it time to shake up our reading habits before they get a bit too 'Groundhog Day'?
Is it time to shake up our reading habits?Is it time to shake up our reading habits?
Is it time to shake up our reading habits?

This year, Book Week Scotland has delivered a feast of activities and events across the country all rooted in this year’s central theme of Discovery. Books can allow us to experience different lives and to discover new worlds and cultures.

With that in mind, Scottish Book Trust teamed up with book shops and booksellers across Scotland to create a Book Generator for audiences to discover new reads based on their current cultural interests.

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By answering a few quick-fire questions, the Book Generator will generate a modern book, a classic and a Galaxy Quick Read and hopefully, will unearth some new genres or titles for those stuck in their reading furrows.

Reading is a uniquely powerful tool that helps us understand others, it helps us tap into creativity, exercise our brain and reduces stress. The huge personal benefits in health and wellbeing that flow from spending just a short time each day lost within a book are now widely documented and understood. Surely getting stuck into varied genres will enhance your well-being even further?

Venturing outside your comfort zone every once in a while will broaden your outlook and, if nothing else, help secure those extra pub quiz points!

The Book Generator can be found on the Book Week Scotland website at http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/reading/book-week-scotland/book-generator

Philippa Cochrane is head of reader development at Scottish Book Trust

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