Speaker A. I am trying to read at least one novel a month. It’s part of my "intellectual" diet. The diet includes Music, TV and even Play Station but I try to keep a balance overall. There are times when I get seriously into a new writer and am distracted until I’ve read everything. On the other hand I can spend untold hours on Final Fantasy or some other game if it engages me. But as with a food diet, the odd chocolate binge won’t hurt you as long as in the long run you get a good balance.

Speaker B. I would like to say I love reading Dickens if it were true  — but I just can’t get down to it. I saw a TV version of David Copperfield and enjoyed it but it is the language in the books I find really difficult to cope with. All the sentences seem so long and complex. I suppose it’s just that Dickens belongs to a different age, when people spoke and maybe even thought differently. On the other hand Shakespeare’s language is difficult for me, but it doesn’t spoil my enjoyment of that amazing dramatist.

Speaker C. I was sat in that armchair that Granddad made. Somehow I felt myself slip back in time as I turned each page. I became conscious of my heart beating. Probably it was the room, the furniture, the decoration; but that book took me somewhere else. I even felt the temperature in the room drop and expected to see Peter Quint staring sightlessly from the garden window.

Speaker D. I never watch a film based on any book I have already read. Susie always does and yet she always seems to end up saying "not as good as the book". On the other hand it is quite useful to see films based on books that you ought to read but don’t want to. Shakespeare or Dickens on film is a great help. You get a red hot story without having to get lost for days in archaic language. On this, Susie and I are in complete agreement.

Speaker E. Some people say that conventional books have had their day. The technology has been surpassed. Like vinyl records and tape cassettes were to music  — the traditional book will be replaced by i-⁠phones, online delivery or through some other multi media platform. They say that one day we’ll no longer read words on paper stuffed between cardboard covers. But I am not so sure. On the beach or in bed, on the train or at home I like to curl up with a good old fashioned, comfortable, paper filled book!

Speaker F. Beck recycles all her books. It’s a nice habit. Where ever she is, when she reads the last page, there she "sets the book free". This means that she writes on the inside cover a message of invitation to whoever happens to pick the book up next. I happened to get one of hers last week. She wrote "this book is a love story. You’ll not be able to put it down until the very last word". And as usual she was spot on. I hardly got any work done last week finishing that damn story!