Quick Reads 2014

Click here to see details of the 2015 Quick Reads titles which will be in libraries from Thursday 5 February 2015.
On the day that Quick Reads 2014 launches, a short film has been released, which celebrates the value of reading.
The film features a range of authors, from Barbara Taylor Bradford and Andy McNab to Matt Haig and Deborah and Lottie Moggach, alongside popular figures including Lily Cole, Larry and George Lamb and Myleene Klass.
Watch the Quick Reads 2014 film:
New survey on reading habits
To coincide with the launch date, Quick Reads have also commissioned new research on our reading habits. Key findings include:
- Half (48%) of Brits who use technology to read say it has made them read more, with the average adult reader spending six hours a week reading
- However, one in five (19%) parents with children under eight admit that they read with them just once a week or less
- Experts warn of risk to future literacy levels as a third (33%) of parents stop reading with their kids before they are ten and a further 38% between ten and eleven
About Quick Reads
Since its launch in 2006, there have been over 3.5 million loans of Quick Reads titles through libraries and 4.3 million copies have been distributed through supermarkets, bookshops, workplaces and prisons. They are among the most popular books read by participants in our Six Book Challenge programme.
Thirty-four per cent of practitioners surveyed by Niace about the impact of the Quick Reads said they used them with their learners to take part in the Challenge and that the scheme had a positive impact on their confidence, skills and motivation.
The Quick Reads 2014 titles are:
- Four Warned by Jeffrey Archer (Pan Books)
- Blackout by Emily Barr (Headline Review)
- A Cruel Fate by Lindsey Davis (Hodder and Stoughton)
- Rules for Dating a Romantic Hero by Harriet Evans (HarperColllins)
- The Escape by Lynda La Plante (Simon & Schuster)
- Hidden by Barbara Taylor Bradford (HarperColllins)
The launch of these new titles coincides with the start of a Parliamentary Inquiry into Adult Literacy and Numeracy announced on 16 January 2014. You can now download and read our submission to the Inquiry.
Get involved
Librarians can use the Quick Reads 2014 ideas pack to get information about Quick Reads 2014 and suggestions for how to promote Quick Reads in your libraries.
To be given access to a downloadable version of the Quick Reads 2014 video which can be played on plasma screens email rose.vickridge@readingagency.org.uk.
Find out more about Quick Reads on their website. You can also connect with Quick Reads via Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest.
Library suppliers have delivered promotional materials - posters, poster-booklets and/or bookmarks - to participating library authorities in England and Scotland. You can download additional the posters here:
Quick Reads 2014 poster
Quick Reads 2014 empty belly poster
You can also download learning resources for each of the titles from the Quick Reads website as well as reading the full survey results.
And you can you download further resources and hear the authors reading from their books on the BBC Skillswise website.