Michael Campbell is the CEO of WestWords, an organisation based in Parramatta that is dedicated to celebrating and championing the stories of the people, places and cultures that comprise the heart of Western Sydney. He’s on the blog today to tell us about an exciting WestWords initiative that is happening throughout October – Booktober™.
The goal of Booktober is simple: to encourage people to read more books! You can decide how many books you want to read during October, make the pledge and then encourage your friends and family to support you. Even better, each participant can opt to raise funds in support of WestWords so that they can continue to provide books and literacy programs to disadvantaged kids within the Greater Western Sydney region.
Scroll down to find out why Michael loves Booktober and what he’ll be reading during this awesome event!
Michael Campbell
Booktober is such an attractive idea!
Books, and the stories that lie within them, enrich lives, create empathy for people and worlds beyond one’s own, reflect our world back to us, challenge our perceptions and reveal what’s possible.
Like so many of us, my life is more than full. Work demands my time, focus and energy. My personal life is, as with any family of four with two children (one embarking on their teenage years) a blend of joy, being a taxi driver, umpire in bouts of sibling jostling, and circus juggler – whilst still maintaining that working life. So reading for pleasure, to enter into that relationship with the characters and knowledge that populate the pages of a book, to do something entirely personal to nourish my soul tends to be last on a very long list.
It was easy when I was a festival director for one of the biggest writers’ festivals in the country. Books came to me, I sought them out and, to create a program, I just had to read them … then read some more. I do get to read now, but not as much as I would like. I have a very large stack of books beside my bed. Booktober gives me the incentive to reduce that pile!
I know from a life with books what they can give. I have found myself within their pages, they have shown me possibility beyond my imagination and shaped my world view and me as a person.
Reading is the first step to a self-actualised life. It is the step before writing and finding one’s voice and articulating who you are in the world. This belief is at the core of my work at WestWords. It is the core impetus behind Booktober.
Join me and other bookworms. By reading and reaping the rewards, you are also giving the means by which we at WestWords can place those gifts in the hands of young people in Western Sydney.
Every year we work with thousands of children and young people in Western Sydney some who have never owned a book of their own. Never discovered for themselves the stories of their culture reflected back to them, never been transported to worlds beyond their local neighbourhood (where some have never seen the Sydney Harbour Bridge or the Three Sisters), beyond the wardrobe, the looking glass or into the near future.
Booktober nourishes not only your mind and soul but nourishes the next generation who will create their best of times, beyond these difficult, if not worst, of times.
I am currently reading:
The complete works of Roald Dahl to my eight year old every night.
The Yield by Tara June Winch.
And next on the pile – Mark O’Flynn’s The Last Days of Eva Langdon.
But if you need suggestions we have compiled reading suggestions on the Booktober website.
–Michael Campbell, CEO of WestWords
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