Go All In: turning what you love into your next book

2026 is the UK’s National Year of Reading, run by the National Literacy Trust for the Department for Education under the banner "Go All In". The premise is simple: reading does not have to start with a worthy classic. It can start with the thing you are already into — football, baking, a band, a box set — and grow from there.

That reframing works. Here is how it looks in a bookshop.

Already cook a lot?

Chef memoirs, food history and single-subject deep-dives read like narrative non-fiction, not manuals. Start in the cooking books and follow a cuisine or a writer you like.

Follow a sport?

Sports writing is some of the best long-form non-fiction going — biographies, single-season accounts, the culture around a club. Browse sports & hobbies.

Watch a lot of fantasy and sci-fi?

The screen adaptations you already follow almost all started as novels, and the source books go further. The adult fiction shelf is the place to start.

Trying to feel better this year?

Short, practical books on habits, sleep, focus and mood are built for people who do not usually finish books. See health & fitness and mind, body & spirit.

The one rule

Pick the book that connects to something you already care about, and give yourself permission to abandon anything that bores you. A finished book you enjoyed is what brings you back for the next one. Not sure where to look? Browse the whole shop.