Nicola Sturgeon – First Minister of Scotland – Bookworm

Who knew or would even think that Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has the time to be a massive Bookworm? Well she is, and she tweets her reads with short reviews.

She is very passionate about the benefits of reading and set up The First Minister’s Reading Challenge to encourage Scottish children to read, with prizes at the end of each year.

She cites reading as ultimate escapism, which broadens the mind. Her preference is for fiction, which she finds gives her perspective and allows her to escape from the day to day pressures of work. A glance at her list from 2017 shows that her taste is eclectic, crime fiction, historical fiction, memoirs and much more.

On BBC Radio 4’s Open Book programme, Nicola Sturgeon told Mariella Frostrup, “I am an addicted book buyer, so I’ve always got far more books on my To Be Read pile than I can ever get through” (We all know that feeling). In order, therefore, to get her reading time in, she always reads in bed before she goes to sleep and regularly spends her Saturday evenings reading.

She also said, “If I read a book that I enjoy I like to talk about it and I like to let people know”, which is why she then shares her short reviews with her Twitter followers.

1/ Probably because books are amongst my very favourite things in life, one of the most enjoyable aspects of twitter for me in the last year has been sharing recommendations – so I thought I’d indulge myself with a wee thread of some of my favourite reads of 2017…

— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) December 23, 2017

2/ First up – here’s some of the crime fiction (loose term perhaps) that I have enjoyed most this year… pic.twitter.com/YznOIdyuyR

— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) December 23, 2017

3/ next is some of the general fiction I have enjoyed most… pic.twitter.com/Q5KuFQLVKo

— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) December 23, 2017

4/ Finally – I haven’t read much non-fiction this year (if you don’t count the forests worth of government papers!!), but I did enjoy these… pic.twitter.com/PKdOjFWxwt

— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) December 23, 2017

5/ And finally, finally, tonight’s read – only half way through but this is shaping up to be one of the most powerful books I’ve read this year. pic.twitter.com/OCVHHssTEk

— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) December 23, 2017

6/ OK, promise this is the last in the book thread…but can’t believe I missed this from my non-fiction list. I loved loved loved this. @404Ink pic.twitter.com/JKnRGeyJbN

— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) December 23, 2017

Below we have featured just 6 of The First Minister’s reads from last year. The full list can be found in the tweets above.