National Year of Reading 2026
Reading is not
a pastime.
It is a way of being in the world.
The book you haven't read yet
is already waiting for you
There is a particular kind of person who used to read. Who remembers reading. Who intends, at some point, to read again — when things are quieter, when there is more time, when the conditions are right. The conditions are never right. The time does not arrive. And the book sits there, patient and unread.
The National Year of Reading 2026 is a simple proposition: start now. Not when things settle. Not with a long novel and a clear diary. Now. With whatever you have. For however long you have it.
Shredded Time is offered in that spirit. London, 1971. A city doing its best to forget the sixties. A novel by Cameron Strange — recovered from boxes in an attic, published here, free to read. No account required. No barrier.
"The manuscripts revealed a complex narrative that blended autobiography with fiction — what Strange termed 'shredded time.' This work chronicled a young man navigating London in the early 1970s, caught between the fading British Empire and the emerging counterculture movement."
Start however you like.
There is no wrong door.
Reading doesn't have to mean sitting still with a physical book. It never did. Shredded Time is available in three formats, each designed for a different kind of attention — or a different kind of day.
Something to read alongside.
Or instead of. Or during.
The Jazz Soufflé — now the GoCom(pletely) Soufflé — is an archive of jazz radio by Stan, recorded across more than a decade in studios, spare rooms, and the wilds of County Galway. Over 200 episodes. All free. All listenable now.
Reading and listening are not opposites. They are companions. Music changes what a page feels like. A page changes what music sounds like. The archive is here if you want it.
Shredded Time is participating in the National Year of Reading 2026, coordinated by the National Literacy Trust — the biggest reading campaign in a generation, helping more people rediscover the joy of reading and make it part of everyday life.
Visit the National Literacy Trust →