World Book Day 2024: Reading Rivers

As part of the university’s Library Fest celebrations this month, and to coincide with World Book Day (7 March) 2024, final-year creative writing student Kayla Marsh sat down with seven members of staff to discuss their ‘Reading Rivers’ – from the books never finished to the books that evoked tears.

Kayla posed her questions to:

• Vice-Chancellor Professor Mark Power
• Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Student Experience) Professor Phil Vickerman
• Alison Down, Liverpool Screen School Lecturer
• Dr Phil Denton, Associate Dean (Education and Student Experience) for the Faculty of Science
• Dr Kathryn (Kate) Walchester, Reader in English Literature and Subject Leader for English
• Sarah Maclennan, Associate Dean (Education and Student Experience) for the Faculty of Arts, Professional and Social Studies
• Peter Ashton, Chief Information Officer

What is the first book you remember reading or having read to you?

Phil Vickerman first read Danny The Champion Of The World as a child and has since read it many times in adulthood.

Alison first read The Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, and this is memorable for her as her dad bred butterflies and moths at home.

Phil Denton can’t remember the exact book but is absolutely convinced that it’s called All Around The Town, by an author that he can only remember as Ally McGooch?!

Mark’s first independent read was The Hobbit.

Kate’s first read was Heidi.

The first book Peter remembers reading independently is 1984 by George Orwell.

What's the most recent book you've read?

Alison most recently read Pessimism is for Lightweights by Salena Godden, which is a gorgeous art and poetry collection on the power of positivity in activism.

Phil Denton’s most recent read is The Stand by Stephen King. He had a pub crawl trip planned and wanted to finish reading it on the train but didn’t want to lug The Stand around different pubs (it is huge), so he decided to slice the book and take just the last 200 pages with him. He’s since sellotaped it back together.

Mark most recently read The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway.

Peter most recently read White Teeth by Zadie Smith, which he says has a writing style that is so effortlessly good.

What genre do you read the most of?

Phil Vickerman mostly reads non-fiction books, tending to read autobiographies on people’s journeys and the way they have overcame difficulties.

Alison mostly reads autobiographies and non-fiction books on trauma.

Phil Denton reads a wide variety of genres as he tends to read any book he can find in those lucky-dip style buckets at charity shops.

Sarah is reading different genres all the time to widen her reading – she has been part of many book clubs and subscriptions that have allowed her to read a wide variety of books (and spend a fair amount of money on them, too).

Kate mostly reads non-fiction writing on travel, place and nature.

Can you think of a book that made you laugh?

Phil Vickerman really struggled with this one, please send him your recommendations – he needs to read happier books! He eventually came up with The School Inspector Calls! by Gervaise Phinn.

The Amazing Edie Eckhart by Rosie Jones has made Alison laugh.

Sarah found herself laughing out loud at The Straight Man by Richard Russo, when she was supposed to be asleep instead of reading.

Bob Mortimer’s autobiography made Kate laugh.

Peter has laughed at many John Irving books, which he says tend to be funny by accident.

A book that made you cry?

Too Many Reasons to Live: My Autobiography by Rob Burrow made Phil Vickerman cry.

(Spoiler alert!!) Phil Denton cried when Billy Bumbler died in The Dark Tower series.

Kate cried at Middlemarch by George Eliot, as well as The Mill on the Floss.

A book you couldn't put down?

Peter couldn’t put down American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins.

Is there a genre you never read?

Phil Vickerman hasn’t read any crime fiction. It doesn’t appeal to him and he doesn’t even watch crime television programmes unless they are documenting true incidents.

Mark never reads romance novels – they just don’t interest him.

Alison doesn’t read horror or crime fiction, because the world is too full of bad things!

Phil Denton doesn’t really have a genre that he hasn’t read because of the lucky-dip buckets in charity shops! If he had to pin one down it would be biographies, as he enjoys the escapism of fiction.

Do you have a book that's a guilty pleasure?

Sarah enjoys reading Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club books – she thinks they’re very funny!

Peter’s guilty pleasure is Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh, which satirises the upper class in the late 1920s.

Is there a book you feel you should've read but haven't yet?

Phil Vickerman wants to read She Made Me Laugh: Mother Teresa and the Call to Holiness, by Stephanie Emmons.

Alison hasn’t read Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear by Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha, but plans to.

Mark has been trying to read Ulysses by James Joyce for about 10 years and still hasn’t finished it.

Peter also hasn’t read Ulysses – or Thomas Hardy, Jane Austen, Emily Bronte, Shakespeare…

Is there a book that is popular that you disliked?

Phil Denton doesn’t have one – he doesn’t keep up with book popularity. It’s all about the charity shop buckets!

What book did you start and never finish?

Phil Vickerman hasn’t finished Nelson Mandela’s A Long Walk to Freedom yet, as it’s a very dense and emotionally powerful book.

Mark really is upset about never finishing Ulysses. It stays on his bedside table and comes on every holiday with him, and it just isn’t happening.

What book would you never lend out?

Sarah would never lend out her Andrew Lang Rainbow Fairy books.

Is there a book you received as a gift?

For Christmas, Alison’s daughter bought her Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before? by Julie Smith, after discovering her YouTube videos on methods of unravelling trauma and knowing that she would love this book.

Mark’s son gifted him with The Old Man and The Sea as a way of encouraging his dad to find more time to read.

Sarah’s friend gifted her a beautiful fairytale pop-up book.

For Christmas, a friend gifted Kate a book on Beth Chatto’s gardens. Kate has gifted her goddaughter a copy of The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, which is available in the British Library for when her goddaughter is old enough to visit.

Peter’s son gifted him a Mr B’s Emporium book subscription that gives him a new book every month for 12 months, with each new book tailored based on his review of the book before.

Which book is so good that you wish you'd written it?

Phil Vickerman wishes he wrote Danny The Champion Of The World – of course – but also admires Fred Dibnah’s work.

Phil Denton wishes he’s written The Dark Tower series by Stephen King.

Alison wishes she’d written To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, because of the way the book depicts Scout’s journey and looks outwards to our world now.

Mark wishes he wrote Ulysses so that he could have written it in a way that would make it easier for him to actually read it!

Sarah wishes she’d written Mr Wilder & Me by Jonathan Coe.

Peter wishes he had written A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving, because the book tells you what is going to happen at the start and yet you read it and enjoy it anyway.

 - Interviews written by Kayla Marsh.

A shared love for reading

Bringing the LJMU community together through a shared love of reading, creating connections and making recommendations, is just one of the outcomes that Library Services and colleagues who have collaborated with them on Library Fest 2024 hope to achieve throughout the month-long festival.

Events on campus for World Book Day 2024

On World Book Day there will be a big book swap at the Student Life Building as well as 'Book Doctors' on duty to write prescriptions for your next great read. Find out more about Library Fest 2024. 

You can also share a look into your own reading genres and favourite books with friends and peers, maybe via email or on social media, and colleagues, maybe by printing and sharing on your office doors or noticeboards, our downloadable World Book Day Qs template.