Last night on Channel 4 there was a segment on how YA book sales are booming, compared to other book "markets" - please, YA is not a GENRE.

It makes for interesting watching - the school kids they talk to utterly hit it on the nose about why you want to read and why people continue reading and it is exactly the same thing I heard time and again when I spoke to kids in the past at the school I've visited giving talks about reading and writing.

And importantly - gods, I hope this was not staged - the boys they showed spoke enthusiastically about reading for pleasure.  My heart soared.  Can we have more of these kids, please?
Apart from the fact that a part of the segment was shot in Foyles, of course, it has a great interview with Charlie Higson and it made me grin about how truthful he was: his books are about zombie adults eating children.  Cheeky beggar.

The segment ends, with a boy holding the most loved and tattered copy of Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl.  I know how that kid feels.  I have a lot of books who are that loved and that tattered.

It's an interesting segment and one that really can quite easily be expanded on into a full programme or even series. Or maybe that's just wishful thinking on my part as a geek girl who loves reading?