Booker Prize launches Quick Read to boost adult reading rates

The Booker Prize Foundation will this week launch a short story collection, All Around the World, intended to widen access to prize-winning authors. Curated by former winner Roddy Doyle, it includes work by Anne Enright, David Szalay and Nadifa Mohamed. The book is being released through the Quick Reads initiative, now in its 20th year, and will be available for £1 from Thursday.

The foundation will donate 12,000 copies to people who face barriers to reading and will supply the prison reading programme Books Unlocked and community partners such as Booksbank. It will also be offered as a free digital and audio download for readers of this week’s Big Issue, while 300 physical copies will be distributed via the magazine’s vendors.

George Anderson, a Big Issue vendor in central London, said: “Reading is almost like mindfulness. It takes you into a different place while keeping you in the here and now.” Data from the forthcoming State of the Nation’s Adult Reading report finds more than a third of UK adults struggle to finish books.

United Kingdom, Central London

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