Read all about it – real books are making a comeback

Ihave tried really hard not to be that parent who is always nagging their child to put their phone down.

I know things are different for this generation of young people and that to them, a loss of wi-fi is an unthinkable tragedy.

However, where I am unable to hold back the nagging is on the subject of the lack of reading for pleasure – caused by too much time on electronic devices. This was reflected in a recent Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy.

I can’t be the only parent who sees this as a personal blow. Many of us spent years encouraging our offspring to gain the same amount of pleasure from reading that we did as children. I always found the sanctuary of reading crucial. I could lose myself for hours in a novel, hidden away from everyone and letting myself imagine being in Narnia or the Secret Garden.

It was the same for The Teenager in her early years, especially as she grew up with Harry Potter, before the lure of social media etc.

Nowadays, books are strictly a last resort for desperate times of wi-fi deprivation.

There was some encouraging news for us old-fashioned booklovers recently, though.

Apparently ye olde printed books are making a comeback, with e-readers taking a back seat.

I know e-readers can be more convenient than taking a stack of books on holiday but was put off this idea after Mr P left his brand new one in the seat pocket of a plane as we flew off on holiday.

He spent the rest of the break borrowing from the pile of books he had mocked me for packing.

I hate to say I told you so but now that the rest of the world has come round to my point of view that the feel, scent and promise of a printed book is hard to beat, I fully expect news soon on my prescience regarding birds taking over the world (watch them. They are obviously plotting something).