Newsletter: March 2006

World Book Day falls on 2nd March this year, and as well as once again distributing vouchers for UK children to get money off a selected range of books, the organisers have focused their attention on 'quick reads'. In an initiative aimed at enticing reluctant readers to pick up a book, a range of bestselling authors have been specially commissioned to write short, snappy novels designed to appeal to as broad a readership as possible. Titles published in March include books by Joanna Trollope and Ruth Rendell, with books by Val McDermid and Andy McNab, among others, to follow.

The team behind World Book Day also commissioned a nationwide survey about happy endings. It turns out that the UK's favourite happy ending is the heroine getting her man in Pride and Prejudice. And apparently, while most women would like to alter the tragic ending of Tess of the D'Urbervilles, men would prefer a more uplifting conclusion to George Orwell's 1984. You can look at the survey findings in more detail, and check out all the World Book Day initiatives by looking at their website.

Here at EnCompass we've also been busy on World Book Day too, with two live on-line chats taking place between reading groups in the UK and groups in Russia and Nigeria. The readers came together initially to talk about their views on happy endings (Nigerian readers were in favour of uplifting stories to escape from the harshness of the real world, while Russian readers were keener on fiction reflecting real life), but the discussion soon bounced off on all kinds of tangents, as all the best book chat does. You can read the text of the discussions, or find out more about forthcoming chats, by clicking this link.

That's all for this month, exceot to say that if you haven't checked out our readers quizzes for a while, you might want to try your luck at some of the latest testers. The most recent is on Canadian writing. They're good fun, and you might just find that you know more than you think - and even if you don't, you might discover something that appeals to you as something worth reading...

Best wishes,

Susan

Susan Tranter

Reader in Residence

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