Fellow booklovers, this is our month. We’re being encouraged to read, read, read. Not to meet a deadline, prepare for a meeting or tackle an intimidating classic, but simply to open a book and enjoy it.
Cancer Research UK's Read Every Day in November Challenge invites us to make reading a daily habit while raising money for cancer research. From 1 to 30 November, the challenge is exactly what its name suggests: read something every day.
A page over breakfast. A poem before bed. A chapter that turns into three because you simply have to know what happens next.
A reading challenge without the reading guilt
At Naxos Creative, we believe reading deserves space in our lives. Not whatever scraps of attention remain after the emails, errands and washing-up, but a little time of its own.
That doesn't mean setting an impossible target. One of the nicest things about this challenge is its flexibility. There is no set amount to read: you choose how much to read each day. A page can be enough. On another day, you might lose an entire afternoon to a novel.
Nor does it have to be a paperback. E-books, audiobooks, poetry, newspapers, magazines and comics all count. This isn't a test of bookish stamina nor an invitation to compare your reading pile with somebody else's.
The point is to return to reading, day after day, and use that commitment to support a cause.
How does the fundraising work?
Registration is free. When you sign up, Cancer Research UK creates an online Giving Page that you can share with friends and family, inviting them to sponsor your reading challenge.
There is no compulsory fundraising target. The charity suggests aiming for £150, but you can choose a target that feels achievable for you.
Ready to join in? Register for the November 2026 challenge here. There’s also a fundraising hub with a reading calendar and resources to help you get started.
What could you read?
Start with something you want to read.
That might sound obvious, but how often do we choose the book we feel we ought to read rather than the one calling to us from the bedside table?
November could be your excuse to return to a favourite author, try a genre you've neglected or finally open the novel a colleague keeps recommending. Short stories offer the satisfaction of a complete world in a single sitting. Poetry asks for little time but rewards attention. An audiobook can accompany a walk or an otherwise unremarkable household task.
I’m currently dipping in and out of Lauren Groff’s Brawler – eking it out short story by short story, each one a mini masterpiece. Just to mix things up a little, I’m also listening to Adele Parks’ Eyes on You (loving it), while The Cracks by T H Huddleston is begging to be read on my Kindle.
The latter even has an accompanying playlist. Now, there’s a first. Or maybe I’ve been under a literary rock, and these things are commonplace. Either way, it’s a damn fine read, particularly timely with Halloween just around the corner, and has inspired me to curate create a own playlist for my current WIP.
And if you’re looking for something to add to your November reading pile, here are five recent releases worth a look.
Suggestions for your November reading pile
If you fancy beginning a daily literary habit with something newly published, here are five late-October releases: two novels, a non-fiction pick, a short-story collection and a wildcard. These are reading possibilities, not homework. Choose whatever makes you want to turn the page.
Novel: Music Against the Night by Yiyun Li
Published 22 October 2026
A historical novel about music, ambition and the cost of pursuing a creative life. John Field, a gifted young pianist from Dublin, and Adelaide Percheron, an orphan raised in French India, follow very different routes towards the musical world of Europe. Their lives eventually converge, bringing questions of talent, sacrifice and whose ambitions take precedence.
For anyone who likes a novel to transport them across borders while keeping its attention on the complicated business of being human, Music Against the Night is the one.
Novel: Bitter Melon by Liv Little
Published 22 October 2026
Heartbroken Jalissa accepts an invitation to travel to Jamaica with the father she barely knows, aware that their time together is running out. Their journey opens up long-held silences, difficult family relationships and questions of identity and belonging.
If your reading tends towards intimate family stories rather than sprawling historical worlds, Bitter Melon offers a different direction for November.
Nonfiction: Good Mood Food by Tim Spector
Published 22 October 2026
Making time for books doesn't always have to mean settling into a story. A cookbook can invite slower attention too: understanding an ingredient, exploring an idea, or finding something you fancy for supper.
Tim Spector's Good Mood Food brings together gut-health science and plant-rich recipes, exploring the relationship between food, mood and energy. A practical choice for readers who like their books to travel between the bedside table and the kitchen, or so says the blurb.
Anthology: Merry Murders on Bedford Square, edited by Maxim Jakubowski
Published 22 October 2026
Too soon for Christmas? Possibly. Too soon for a little fictional foul play? Never.
Merry Murders on Bedford Square gathers new crime stories against a festive backdrop. A collection offers a useful rhythm for a daily reading challenge: begin a mystery one evening, return to it the next, and enjoy the satisfaction of reaching an ending without committing to a whole novel.
Wildcard: Abandoning a Cat by Haruki Murakami
Published 20 October 2026
Not a novel, and not quite a conventional memoir: this illustrated edition of Murakami's personal essay reflects on his father, their estrangement, and the family memories that remain difficult to untangle.
Translated by Philip Gabriel, Abandoning a Cat is a short book about a large emotional territory: what we inherit, what goes unsaid, and how well we can ever know our parents. A reminder that a book needn't be long to give us plenty to think about.
Reading alone, doing something together
Reading is often solitary. The joy needn’t be.
Sharing what we're reading gives us a way into conversations we might not otherwise have. A recommendation becomes a friendship; a disputed ending keeps a dinner table talking long after the plates have been cleared.
For November, that shared pleasure can also become a shared effort. Tell people about the challenge. Invite your book group to take part. Share your Giving Page alongside an honest update about your reading, whether you've finished a brilliant novel or spent the evening rereading the same paragraph.
McFadden or Dostoevsky? It’s up to you. You don't need to turn into a different kind of reader. Just make a little room for the reader you already are.
Thirty days. Something to read each day. And a reason to make those pages count.
Will you join in? What will you be reading this November?