2011
SIX BOOK CHALLENGE UNISON branches throughout the country are taking part in the Six Book Challenge, which encourages people to read six books and record their reactions in a reading diary. There are no restrictions on the type of books members read – cookery books, graphic novels, DIY guides, even bedtime stories for children and grandchildren all count.
Take part in the
Six Book Challenge
here!
www.sixbookchal lenge.org.uk
CASE STUDY Discovering the joy of Six Over 80 members of staff at De Montfort University signed up to take part in the Six Book Challenge when the UNISON branch lifelong learning team launched the initiative at the beginning of 2011. The Challenge is an initiative from The Reading Agency which encourages people to read six books of any kind and record their reactions in a reading diary in order to gain incentives, the chance to enter a national prize draw and a certificate when they finish. While the branch opened the Challenge to all staff (Vice-Chancellor Dominic Shellard was one of the first to join up, calling it “a superb initiative”), the lifelong learning team prioritised supporting and encouraging emergent and less confident readers. The branch opened and stocked bookswap
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libraries in the various faculty buildings onsite, in addition to the Quick Reads library it had already established for post and porterage and cleaning staff with the help of 100 new books supplied by the university’s HR Training and Development Unit. It also ran occasional lunchtime book-swaps on campus to help people choose titles to read. “Reading is enjoyable, we need to help people get into the habit of reading, and hopefully we can cultivate a passion here at DMU for picking up and enjoying a book,” commented union learning rep Andrew Jennison. The branch also organised lunchtime readings with Leicester writers, including Asian teenage fiction author Bali Rai and fantasy writer Tabbie Browne, to help keep reading in the forefront of people’s minds during the Challenge.