For World Book Day (6 March 2025) I wanted to reflect on the books I’ve read so far this year.

Books I read in January

I try to read poetry throughout the year and I have been making my way through Pauline Mackay’s Burns for Every Day of the Year. As well as enjoying poems I love, I am discovering poems I didn’t know and learning about the origins of the poems, eg from letters that Robert Burns wrote to his many friends and lovers.

Every year I read something on the English language, some are serious books on grammar, other are more playful. In January I read Gyles Brandreth’s Prose and Cons: The English Language in Just a Minute. It was very amusing and I was delighted to discover there is a word for a practice I dislike – backronyms, kind of retrofit acronyms which I also abhor!

I continued to read The History of Ideas: Equality, Justice and Revolution by David Runciman and particularly enjoyed the chapter on Rosa Luxemborg. I was interested in what I read about her and will seek to learn more.

The big standout read for me in January 2025 was A Time of Hope by Carol Craig. This 600-page volume, published in December 2024, was a fascinating read and covered the origins and history of Scotland’s Centre for Confidence and Well-being. There were also chapters on many of the topics the centre has focused on over its twenty years including trauma, adverse childhood experiences, wellbeing and the impact of corporal punishment in Scotland. Many of these topics were covered in individual books commissioned as part of the centre’s Postcards from Scotland series.

There is so much to think about in this book and it contained a large number of references which influenced my reading in February!

Books I read in February

Carol Craig (see above) refers to many authors and experts in her latest book. This prompted me to learn more about Lucy Foulkes’ work on mental health and I bought her 2010 book, Losing Our Minds. This was a great read and put in context much of what I read last year in her latest book, Coming of Age. This focused on adolescence and offered an alternative analysis to another book I read that year, Jonathan Haidt’s Anxious Generation. I am still pondering over these different perspectives.

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell had a big influence on me when I first read it in 2002. In Carol’s book she talks about some of the big events organised by the Centre for Confidence and Well-being in its early years, at which Gladwell was one of the guest speakers. This encouraged me to read his latest book, Revenge of the Tipping Point, which was very enjoyable. Lots to think about in this book.

The third book I read in February, again referred to in Carol’s book, was Poverty Safari by Darren McGarvey. This has been lying about my bookshelves since it was published in 2018 but I resisted reading it as I made incorrect assumptions about the author (I thought it would be all political posturing). However, I found it to be a self-reflective, honest and brave account from the author who has changed his views on some things over time as a result of maturity, life experience and giving space to other perspectives. I am now looking forward to reading his new book, Trauma Industrial Complex: Oversharing in the Age of Lived Experience, which will be published later this year.

The only book I’ve not enjoyed so far this year is The Relational Workplace by Saliha Baya and Mark Greene. I especially didn’t like the introduction of yet another acronym (or perhaps more technically an abbreviation!) in the equalities space, ie anti-oppression, diversity, equity and inclusion (ADEI).

Books I’m reading in March

I kicked off March re-reading Great Expectations by Charles Dickens which I read as a young teenager. I don’t remember the plot and I am enjoying it afresh!

As a fan of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, I am looking forward to reading her much-anticipated new novel Dream Count which was published this week.

The other book I intend to read this month is The Spirit Level by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett. This is another one I have had on my radar for a while.

What I plan to read in April

I will be attending the launch of the latest book in the Postcards from Scotland series, Born to Play, edited by former Children’s Commissioner Tam Baillie and Professor John McKendrick. The launch is on 27 March at Glasgow Caledonian University and I look forward to reading the book in April.

Happy World Book Day!