Why You Should Do Turn Up the Heat

08 June 2026

It’s almost time for Turn Up the Heat, the library’s annual adult reading programme. Turn Up the Heat, or TUTH, encourages borrowers to read and report on twelve challenges, ticking them off their TUTH challenge card. There are weekly spot prizes and a grand prize to offer incentives but doing a reading challenge like TUTH is also a lot of fun. Here’s why you should give TUTH a go this year.

TUTH is a programme dedicated to helping readers find great new books to read. If you’re stuck in a reading rut, always returning to the same old authors and genres, this is the perfect opportunity to read something new. Whether you choose similar authors and genres, or step right outside your comfort zone is up to you. Hopefully you’ll discover some books that stay with you long after the last page.

It’s also easy to make TUTH work for you, so you read just what you want to read – even if you don’t quite know what that looks like.  You might see TUTH as an opportunity to tick off books that have been sitting neglected on your must-read list. Those books that caught your eye years ago but with new books coming out all the time, you never got around to reading.

What also makes TUTH fun is that you’ll be part of a wider reading community, a secret society of readers beavering away on their challenge cards. There’ll be special TUTH social media posts, book displays and booklists of librarian recommendations so you can plan what you might like to read and discover what other people are reading.

Weekly spot prizes keep the excitement going – every time you report in, you go in the draw.  Report in on just four books and you’re in the draw for the grand prize.  And any books qualify for challenges – library books in print, ebooks and audiobooks, books you have at home – see what I mean about making TUTH work for you.

If you’re not sure how to get started, have a look at the library’s website, Facebook and Instagram pages for tips and ideas. TUTH booklists will be available to collect from your nearest library branch or you can view them on the library website's TUTH page. Have a chat to our friendly library staff. They love talking about books – it really does make their day.

Posted by JAM

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