Our neighbors across the pond have named 2026 the National Year of Reading with Go All In, a campaign that encourages citizens to “reconnecting reading with the things that already inspire us – from playlists and football matches to films, food and family time.” 

Reading for pleasure is on the decline in the UK, as it is here in the US.

• Recent research shows 50% of UK adults read for pleasure, down from 58% in 2015
• The numbers here in the US are even more worrisome: reporting last year indicated that just 16% of Americans are reading for fun, a 40% decrease from our peak of 28% in 2004.

The UK’s Department of Education partnered with more than 60 organizations to create Go All In out of the recognition that “everyone knows reading expands worlds, sharpens minds, and fuels creativity. But fewer of us are making time for it.”

• Rather than trying to move people toward reading, Go All In “brings reading to them, through their passions.”
• A year-long calendar of events aims to help citizens connect to their existing interests through books with everything from book sales to trivia competitions to the world’s largest rap lesson.
• The campaign hopes to mobilize 100,000 volunteers and get one million more people actively using libraries.

Books alone won’t save us, as my colleague Sharifah Williams reminds us in this piece, but they can be part of the solution. I’ll be watching Go All In with great interest and envy. May their efforts succeed.