READ Y'SELF FITTER
UPDATE – 2015 APPEARANCES
“Designed for those who love literature but have somehow lost their way … Miller is an excellent speaker and he has honed his performance into a rewarding mixture of literary talk, motivational lecture and stand-up comedy routine.” TLS, May 2014
“Fantastic … incredibly funny, slightly controversial and a great evening to bring people together, rooting for each other.” While The Ink Is Still Wet, June 2014
READ Y’SELF FITTER is a ten-step programme to cure oneself of bad reading habits. It was devised by me both as a motivational lecture and also a way of doing something more interesting than just reading aloud from the book and then asking for questions.
Attendees are invited to fill out this form:
With the aid of nothing more than a flipchart, I guide the audience through the ten rules of Reading Dangerously. What makes a great book? Should one finish difficult books or books one doesn’t like? Why do so many of us lie about the books we have – or haven’t – read? Is it better to spend time at the gym or the library? Is Moby-Dick really a better book than The Da Vinci Code? And so on.
At the end of the talk, I pick a few of the forms at random out of a hat and share them with the room, encouraging people to go forth from that place and start reading themselves fitter with the book of their choice. In the days following the event, there tends to be a spike in local sales of War and Peace.
Cambridge goes wild
I shall be delivering the lecture at the following bookshops and festivals throughout 2014. More dates to come…
March 31st: Fourth Estate literary salon, Shoreditch. With authors Damian Barr and Alexandra Heminsley. Sold out!
April 5th: Cambridge Literary Festival. READ Y’SELF FITTER. Sold out!
May 10th: Whitstable Literary Festival, Kent. “Hang On Lads… I’ve Got a Great Idea…” Great Train Robbery event with author Nick Russell-Pavier.
May 11th: Whitstable Literary Festival, Kent. READ Y’SELF FITTER. Sold out!
May 13th: Radisson Bloomsbury Street Hotel, London. With Sam Leith, for Hidden Prologues and Social Book Week. READ Y’SELF FITTER.
May 29th: Bookseller Crow, Crystal Palace. READ Y’SELF FITTER.
June 7th: Stoke Newington Literary Festival, London. Discussion of ‘great books’ with the comedian Stewart Lee. Sold out!
July 1st: The Books That Built Me literary salon, in association with Harper’s Bazaar, Café Royal, London. Sold out!
July 12th: Lichfield Literary Festival, Lichfield, Staffordshire. READ Y’SELF FITTER.
July 16th: Blackwell’s, Charing Cross Road, London. Doctor Who books event with authors Jenny Colgan and Neil Perryman. Sold out!
July 19th: Latitude Festival, Henham Park, Southwold, Suffolk. READ Y’SELF FITTER.
July 25th: Port Eliot Festival, St. Germans, Cornwall. READ Y’SELF FITTER.
August 15th: Book-ish, Crickhowell, Powys. READ Y’SELF FITTER.
August 16th: Green Man Festival, Glanusk, Wales. READ Y’SELF FITTER. Sold out!
August 22nd: Edinburgh Book Festival “Unbound”, Edinburgh, Scotland. READ Y’SELF FITTER.
September 7th: Festival No 6, Portmeirion, Wales. READ Y’SELF FITTER.
September 12th: King’s Place Festival, London. READ Y’SELF FITTER.
September 13th: Chiswick Book Festival, London. READ Y’SELF FITTER.
September 18th: Wise Words Festival, Canterbury. The Living Library event at the Beaney House of Art and Knowledge. With Peggy Riley and Katherine May.
September 23rd: Topping & Company Booksellers, Ely, Cambridgeshire. READ Y’SELF FITTER.
September 27th: Wigtown Book Festival, Scotland. READ Y’SELF FITTER.
October 16th: Blackwell’s Bookshop, Oxford. “Will Bookshops Exist in 100 Years’ Time?” debate with Jen Campbell, Mark Forsyth and others.
October 25th: Dundee Literary Festival, Scotland. READ Y’SELF FITTER.
October 31st: Buxton Literary Weekend, Buxton, Derbyshire. READ Y’SELF FITTER.
November 16th: Folkestone Book Festival, Kent. READ Y’SELF FITTER.
