Stop What You're Doing and Read This!

In Vintage's 21st anniversary year, this book is a mission statement about the paramount importance of reading to our quality of life.
 
In any 24 hours there might be sleeping, eating, kids, parents, friends, lovers, work, school, travel, deadlines, emails, phone calls, Facebook, Twitter, the news, the TV, Playstation, music, movies, sport, responsibilities, passions, desires, dreams. Why should you stop what you're doing and read a book? But people have always needed stories. We need literature -- novels, poetry -- because we need to make sense of our lives, test our depths, understand our joys, and discover what humans are capable of. Great books can provide companionship when we are lonely or peacefulness in the midst of the commuter rush. Reading provides a unique kind of pleasure and no-one should live without it.
 
The ten essays in this book tell us about the experience of reading, why access to books should never be taken forgranted, how reading transforms our brains, and how literature can save lives. In any 24 hours there are so many demands on your time and attention -- make books one of them.

MARK HADDON is an author, illustrator and screenwriter who has written fifteen books for children and won two BAFTAs. His bestselling novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time was published in 2003. It won seventeen literary prizes, including the Whitbread Award. Mark Haddon lives in Oxford.
 
MICHAEL ROSEN was born in 1946 in North London. One of the best-known figures in the children's book world, he is renowned for his work as a poet, performer, broadcaster and scriptwriter. As an author and by selecting other writers' works for anthologies he has been involved with over 140 books.
 
 ZADIE SMITH was born in London. Her novels include White Teeth, The Autograph Man and On Beauty.
 
CARMEN CALLIL was born and educated in Melbourne, Australia and came to the UK in 1960. She is the author (with Colm Toibin) of The Modern Library: The 200 Best Novels in English Since 1950.
 
TIM PARKS currently lives in Italy and is the author of novels, non-fiction and essays.
 
BLAKE MORRISON is the author of two bestselling memoirs and is also a poet, critic, journalist and librettist.