DON'T TELL ME I CAN'T…...read 100 books

Jo Macfarlane’s pageturning challenge made her see reading in a different way

- MISHAAL KHAN

Finishing the final pages of the book Rich Dad’s Before You Quit Your Job by Robert Kiyosaki, I tick it off in my notebook with a satisfied sigh. It’s the 100th book I’ve read in a year – around 10 million words to be precise – a challenge which once seemed so daunting, especially as I’d always found reading a struggle. But now, as I take in my completed list, it feels like I’ve achieved the impossible.

Growing up, I’d struggled to focus at school and I’d needed a tutor to help me even scrape a pass at my English O level. My mum, Betty, had always been an avid reader, but nothing could capture my attention long enough. Not Jilly Cooper, or Jane Austen, or anything else my peers were into. One friend even walked to and from school with her head in a book, whichI found baffling.