How reading helps our World Book Night authors relax

This World Book Night, we are encouraging the whole country to replace scrolling on their smartphones with reading. We have launched A Chapter A Day, a challenge encouraging the nation to read a few pages of a book every day, and here some of our brilliant World Book Night authors share their experiences of how reading helps them to find peace in our fast-paced world.

Andy Weir, author of The Martian

“Once you start doing something that requires more concentration and slower, more deliberate thought, your brain will calm down on its own.”

Jess Kidd, author of Himself

“I love reader recommendations. There are some amazing book bloggers online sharing their enthusiasm for all kinds of books. They are everyday people who love reading and their reviews put me onto writers I haven’t tried yet.”

Mahsuda Snaith, author of The Things We Thought We Knew

“Any book that grips you so that you want to keep on turning the pages will help you regain focus and clarity. The beautiful thing about reading is that it helps you connect with something bigger than you while allowing you to feel less alone. It is pure magic and I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t benefit from a bit of that in their lives.”

Marina Cantacuzino, author of The Forgiveness Project: Stories for a Vengeful Age

“About 10 years ago I started having trouble sleeping. It was making me anxious and I felt completely exhausted in the morning. Then I discovered audiobooks and found they had a wonderfully hypnotic and relaxing effect. As I rested my head on the pillow I was able to fall asleep within the first 20 minutes of being read to.”

Mel Darbon, author of Rosie Loves Jack

“Immersing myself in a novel never fails to inspire me and help me to focus again, as it completely removes me from the outside world and cuts out all the noise. My best piece of advice is to first of all switch the phone off and sit down in a quiet space. Then imagine all the information overload of the day is being packaged away into a box. Fill it up with everything you want to get rid of to be able to focus again… After this, pick up a book.”

Tony Parsons, author of Juliet, Naked

“The important to remember about books is simply this – they should be fun.”

Get involved

Find out more about the 23 books donated by publishers that are being given away this World Book Night.

See how our tips to start and keep reading could help you build up to a chapter a day and more.