World Book Night 2026 with Read Manchester
Thursday 23rd April was World Book Night, the Reading Agency’s annual campaign which aims to celebrate and inspire reading for pleasure. As World Book Day encourages children to read, World Book Night promotes the too often overlooked benefits of reading for pleasure for adults.
Staff and volunteers from Read Manchester and Manchester Libraries held a stall on the Wythenshawe Forum Concourse outside Wythenshawe Library where we handed out free books and spoke to people about reading and making the most of their local library.
Common conversations included ‘I know reading is important/valuable but I just don’t have the time/ I’m out of the habit/ I don’t know where to start/ I haven’t read a book for fun since school’.
We were able to offer Quick Reads, which are short books and great stories by best selling authors, written in an accessible and easy to read style, and are at the heart of the World Book Night offer. These shorter reads are ideal for overcoming some of the intimidation of reading larger titles when you are not in the habit of regular reading.
We also gifted Quick Reads to several of our partner organisations to use as part of their own World Book Night celebration.
Manchester Metropolitan University Library:
We gave the books out at our Library Help Point, working with the pre-sessional English course team to promote them to students who are learning English as a second language.
We’re also giving a copy of each book to our International College’s sharing library – this team was particularly interested in the books as they run a reading group as part of their pastoral support.
Saviour CE Primary School, Collyhurst:
We chose to let staff leave early and cancelled a meeting so they could go home and enjoy a book instead.
One staff member even squeezed in a quick read before the theatre started that evening!
The Beacon Centre, Clayton:
We used the books as part of our St Georges Day event at The Beacon Centre, Clayton where 37 community members enjoyed a free cream tea and Bingo. After Bingo had finished I explained what World Book Night was and asked that people chose a Quick Read book to take home and read. I suggested that after they have read the books they could pass them on to other people who may enjoy them. Another suggestion made was that if anybody wanted to set up a Book Club where they could discuss these books to contact us to use the Centre. The event was a success and the attendees were especially pleased to go away with a free book.
National Year of Reading 2026
World Book Night is one of many key moments in the National Year of Reading, a nationwide campaign that aims to address the decline on reading amongst people of all ages.
The year’s campaign revolves around the theme of ‘Go all In’. ‘Go All In’ encourages us to embrace the things we’re interested in and read around our favourite subjects and hobbies.
You can find out more here: National Year of Reading 2026 | Go All In
