What is Books Are My Bag?
Books Are My Bag is a year-round campaign to celebrate bookshops across the UK and Ireland. It was established in 2013 by the Booksellers Association, working closely with its members (both independent and chain bookshops) publishers, authors, illustrators, poets and many other partners within the book world and beyond.
Books Are My Bag exists to make connections between bookshops and people who value them; to champion the work booksellers do within their communities; and to remind people of the joy and benefits of doing their book-shopping with their local bookshop.
Books Are My Bag comprises a range of calendar moments and book recommendations including Independent Bookshop Week (June), Bookshop Day (second Saturday in October), Irish Book Week (October), Indie Book Awards, Books Are My Bag Readers Awards, Indie Book of the Month and Booktime magazine.
For more information follow @booksaremybag and #ChooseBookshops on social media.
Choose Bookshops
- Local jobs
- Local economy
- Local community
- Real passion
- Real people
- Real conversations
- Proper service
- Perfect gifts
- (and taxes paid!)
2026 National Year of Reading
Go All In: If You’re Into It, Read Into It.
Whether you’re into gaming, gardening, music, sport, family time or food, reading helps you go all in on the things that matter most.
The National Year of Reading 2026 invites everyone to reimagine reading as social, modern and personally meaningful – not something extra, but something that adds extra to what you already love.
Go All In shows how reading in all its forms – on a device, comics, graphic novels, audiobooks, fiction and non-fiction – is the ultimate way to dive deeper into your passions. Find out more at
goallin.org.uk
Choose Bookshops
Featuring well-loved authors and illustrators, and filmed in three wonderful bookshops, this video celebrates the magic of shopping local and the communities bookshops create.
What Have You Been Buying?
We’d love to see what you’ve been buying and where you’ve been buying it. Share pictures of your bookshop purchases on social media, tag the bookshop you bought them from, tag us @booksaremybag and use #ChooseBookshops. Let’s shout about our favourite books and bookshops!
Events At Your Local Bookshop
Get news about events and offers from your local bookshop straight to your inbox with National Book Tokens Discover. Visit the National Book Tokens site to search for your nearest shop and sign up!