IT became a standing joke in our family that in holiday snaps you only saw the top of my head, because the rest of it was buried in a book.

As a youngster I rarely went anywhere without a book. I read in the garden, in the car, on the beach, in the bath, at the bus stop and in church.

My appetite for leisure reading waned when I was a student and had to focus on set texts for exams, but it picked up again later on. During a tedious stint as a temp, booking appointments for a carpet salesman in the back of beyond, I would tuck a novel down the side of my computer and slyly pull it out to read whenever the coast was clear.

My childhood reading, thanks largely to Enid Blyton, sparked a lifelong love of books. I recently bought some old hardback copies of Famous Five books and couldn't resist dipping into the gang's Kirren Island adventures; they were inevitably dated but I re-lived the thrill of reading them first time around. Even back then the yarns were old-fashioned and middle-class, but to a girl who dreamed of boarding school and midnight feasts, that was their appeal.

It isn't just the stories I recall from books in my formative years - it's the feel, smell and look of them. I still remember the vivid pictures in my Ladybird fairytale books, the fusty smell of my Hector's House annual, and the eerie illustrations in a children's mystery paperback which I've still got, its cover faded from the summer of 1976.

Reading a book is about more than literacy; it's a tactile experience involving touch, sight and smell, and some of that stays with you for life. That's why my heart sinks a little when I see young children using e-books, it seems too sterile for young minds and something they're unlikely to remember in later life.

So I was heartened this week to hear about a scheme by Beckfoot School promoting reading for pleasure. Called Get Caught Reading, it involves school staff photographed reading books in unusual places or creative ways, with the images blown up to posters and displayed in school where students see them every day. What a lovely way of encouraging youngsters to engage with books.

It is well documented that poor literacy skills can have a devastating impact on a child's later life. Bradford has lower than average literacy levels, but with projects such as Get Caught Reading, the newly-launched Literacy Hub and the Canterbury Imagine scheme, providing free books to under-fives, the district is making strides in equipping children with vital skills, as well as introducing them to a lifelong joy of reading.