I feel very lucky to  be an ambassador for the National year of reading at Parramattalibrary. I was the kind of kid who spent all lunchtime hunkered down in the library devouring book after book. Libraries are havens, and need our support. 
If I had to make a list of all the books in my life that had shaped and changed me, or transported me to new worlds, we’d be here for a very very long time and I’d wear my fingers out typing the titles! But there’s a very special thing that the right book can do, at the right moment, for the right person. Sometimes when you’re reading, you disappear. The book disappears. There are no longer any boundaries around your mind, and there’s nothing standing between between you and the story.. instead, you are right there, inside the world created by the words. So I’ll pick just a few of the books that have carried me outside myself. 
The Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren: A magical and moving story of two brothers who take a leap into a world beyond death. 
Finn Family Moomintroll by Tove Jansson: There has never been a world as strange and wistful as Moominland.
The Power of Three by Diana Wynne Jones:  Full of great characters, magic, and a very twisty, surprising plot!
The Unconsoled, by Kazuo Ishiguro: Like being trapped in someone else’s dream
The God of Small Things, by Arundhati Roy: So very sad, and beautifully written.
I think the National Year of Reading campaign is vitally important.Reading is freedom. Through books, you have the chance to the chance to live other lives, to learn from other people’s experiences and have a larger existence.Reading opens up possibilities and pathways. This opportunity for so many diverse groups and organisations within the community to unite and promote reading will go a long way towards giving everyone an equal chance to have access to the benefits of literacy.