Reading's own summer reading challenge closed on Saturday 12 September. Finishers are in a branch prize draw, but the council has published no draw date.

Reading Loves Reading, the borough’s own summer reading challenge, closed on Saturday 12 September after 16 weeks. Children who logged six books over three visits are now in a prize draw at their own branch. The council has not published a date for those draws, or said how many took part this year.

The council set the dates as Saturday 23 May to Saturday 12 September 2026 (Reading Borough Council). The page carrying those dates was last updated on 8 July, and it still carried them unchanged on 13 September. Nothing has been published to extend the run or to close it early.

The seven libraries, and their Saturday hours

Every branch opened at 10am on the final Saturday. Three of them closed two hours before the rest, and these are the standing Saturday hours at each one.

Library Address Saturday closing
Central Library Civic Centre, Bridge Street, RG1 2LU 3pm
Caversham Library Church Street, RG4 8AU 3pm
Tilehurst Library School Road, RG31 5AS 3pm
Battle Library 420 Oxford Road, RG30 1EE 3pm
Palmer Park Library St Bartholomew’s Road, RG1 3QB 1pm
Southcote Library Southcote Community Hub, Coronation Square, RG30 3QP 1pm
Whitley Library South Reading Community Hub, 252 Northumberland Avenue, RG2 7QA 1pm

The hours are taken from each library’s own page on the council website (Central, Caversham, Tilehurst, Battle, Palmer Park, Southcote, Whitley).

Bar chart of Saturday opening hours at Reading's seven libraries on 12 September 2026. Central, Caversham, Tilehurst and Battle open 10am to 3pm; Palmer Park, Southcote and Whitley open 10am to 1pm.
Closing times at each Reading library on the last day of the challenge. Source: Reading Borough Council library pages. Graphic by Reading Daily.
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Central Library is not where it was a year ago. It moved out of King’s Road in May and reopened at the Civic Centre on Bridge Street on 18 June, after 60,000 books were shifted across town (Reading Borough Council).

What counts as finishing

The council’s rule is six books over three visits. Book Bingo, the version for teenagers and adults, is three books over three visits. Everyone who finishes is entered into a prize draw at their own branch.

Joining the challenge is free, and Reading libraries no longer charge overdue fines. You do need a library card, which is also free and can be sorted at any branch counter (Reading Borough Council).

This year’s theme is space, and the challenge is written so that children can set parents, carers and teachers reading alongside them. A spaceship colouring competition launched with it in May, the prize a family ticket to Reading Rep’s Christmas show. The council has not published a closing date for that one.

Last year 1,863 children and 540 adults took part across the seven libraries. The council has not yet said how this year compares, and no date has been published for the branch prize draws.

Reading does not run the national challenge

There is a national summer reading challenge, and Reading is not in it. Read to the Beat is run by the charity The Reading Agency with public libraries and backed by Universal Music Group UK. It opened on 20 June in Scotland and 4 July in England and Wales, is aimed at children aged four to eleven, and its public counter stood at 2,388,519 books read when it was checked on 13 September (Summer Reading Challenge).

Reading libraries are not part of it. There is no mention of Read to the Beat anywhere on the council’s website: not on the library pages, and not in any of its news releases. The last time Reading promoted the national challenge on its own site was 2022, when 1,520 children aged 4 to 13 took part in the science-themed Gadgeteers challenge, supported by 33 volunteers aged 14 to 18 who put in more than 568 hours between them (Reading Borough Council).

The council has not published a statement explaining the switch. What its own scheme does differently is visible on the page. Reading Loves Reading ran for 16 weeks, opening in May rather than at the end of term. It is open to adults as well as children. The national challenge opened on 4 July and stops at age 11.

What it means for you

  • The challenge has closed, so there is nothing left to log. Finishers are in a prize draw at their own branch, and the council has not published when those draws happen or what the main prizes are.
  • If your child did not get to six books, nothing is lost by carrying on. Borrowing is free all year and Reading libraries do not charge overdue fines on any item.
  • You need to be a library member to be in the draw. Membership is free and can be sorted at any branch counter.
  • The spaceship colouring competition that launched with the challenge in May, prize a family ticket to Reading Rep’s Christmas show, still has no published closing date.
  • If you are returning to Central Library for the first time since the spring, it is at the Civic Centre on Bridge Street, not King’s Road. Parking there is seven bookable spaces only, so read our guide to parking in Reading before driving in.

Behind the challenge, the library service has had a year of spending. A £495,000 grant from Arts Council England, awarded on behalf of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, has gone into upgraded public computers, laptops with mobile data that can be borrowed for home use, tablets, better wifi and wireless printing, interactive floors and tables, and digital event screens. All seven libraries have had some of it, with most going to the six branches rather than the new Central Library. The final stage of the project will put self-service library cabinets in four community locations that have no library at all.

Cllr Jacopo Lanzoni, lead councillor for leisure and culture, said the branches “act as a community hub for young and old to meet, take part in events or just enjoy space to sit and read” (Reading Borough Council).

Sources

Updated 13 September 2026. This page was first published on the challenge’s final day. Reading Loves Reading closed as scheduled on Saturday 12 September. The council has since published no closing statement, no participation total and no prize draw dates, and its Reading Loves Reading page is unchanged.