Hay Festival launches campaign for National Year of Reading
Hay Festival has launched a campaign to crowdsource recommendations for new readers amid falling literacy rates across the UK.
Run in partnership with the National Year of Reading 2026, The Pleasure List campaign will encourage reading for pleasure in adults, sharing the most un-put-downable books.
A public call out for recommendations will inform a final selection to be launched at Hay Festival 2026, the UK’s largest, free-to-enter celebration of books.
Readers can share their recommendations via the festival’s site for the chance to win a bundle of books for a public space of their choosing.
Recommendations from supporting writers, influencers, and public figures across the year’s Hay Festival programmes will be shared weekly online.
In a video to launch the campaign, Hay Festival president Stephen Fry said: “You might have heard that next year is our National Year of Reading. Great news for book lovers, but the stats show we’re a dying breed. Fewer and fewer people in Britain are reading for pleasure and we want to change that.
“So Hay Festival is pulling together a reading list that can entice the most reluctant reader to start – The Pleasure List – and we want your recommendations. What’s the book you raced through in one sitting? What book never fails to cheer you up? What’s the first book you remember falling in love with?
“Share your ideas over on the Hay Festival website and you’ll be entered into a prize draw to win the final Pleasure List for a local community space of your choosing. It’s a win-win.”
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Hay Festival CEO Julie Finch said: “The Pleasure List will offer a joyful starting point to help people on their reading journeys with fun recommendations that we’ll be celebrating at our events and across our digital platforms throughout 2026, our National Year of Reading.
“We know the benefits of reading, but fewer and fewer make time to read for pleasure regularly. More and more people feel that books aren’t for them, or they don’t know where to begin. We want to change that. Join us!”
The campaign compliments other National Year of Reading projects at Hay Festival, including an expanded learning and engagement programme and new programming strands announced as part of the recent Hay Festival 2026 earlybird event drop.
Hay Festival, one of the world’s leading cultural charities, was founded in Hay-on-Wye, Wales in 1987, providing audiences with dynamic platforms to come together to share ideas, different perspectives and provoke conversations that can create a better world.
Forty-five earlybird events are out now for Hay Festival 2026, the charity’s flagship edition, which takes place 21–31 May, teasing the full programme to come next March. Visit the Hay Festival site for more.
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