DK has acquired Read Yourself Happy: How a Good Book Habit Can Ease Your Anxiety by "You’re Booked" host Daisy Buchanan.
Elizabeth Neep, editorial director for DK Life, acquired world rights from Diana Beaumont at Marjacq. Read Yourself Happy will be published in hardback in February 2025.
“Following the success of her hugely popular essay for The Pound Project, ’Burn Before Reading’, where Daisy shared how books helped to heal her from burnout, Read Yourself Happy is for the many of us who find ourselves struggling to find calm in our increasingly chaotic world”, DK said.
“When Daisy first felt worry consume her as a child, she turned to the wonder of reading. Somehow, as a grown-up (or a person trying to be one) she turned to food, alcohol and online shopping instead, but these momentary highs made her feel lower still. Eventually diagnosed with General Anxiety Disorder, she returned to reading and soon discovered that losing herself in a good book helped her find so much more: her confidence through characters, her sexuality through racy romps and more and more peace with every page.
“In Read Yourself Happy, Daisy combines her own journey, the wisdom of the characters, writers and literary worlds she has loved and the advice of experts to help you read yourself calmer, read yourself romantic, read yourself free from addiction and so much more. This book will help form one of the healthiest habits you already have at your fingertips.”
Neep said: “Since joining DK Life, I’ve been on the search for smart, commercial books that help readers to change their minds and change their lives in positive and practical ways – Daisy’s book does just that, offering us a simple solution to the low-level hum of anxiety that many of us feel every day. Read Yourself Happy doesn’t just celebrate the power of reading but will act as a gateway drug to arguably the healthiest habit available to each of us today and will delight ‘You’re Booked’ fans everywhere."
Buchanan said: “As a writer and a reader, I’m very happy to be working with the phenomenal team at DK – they publish books that help us to live more happily, and more curiously. Nothing has boosted my happiness and curiosity like my reading habit, and I can’t wait to reach people like me, and show them how reading can bring us so much comfort and joy, and restore everything that anxiety takes away from us.”
She added: “My fantasy is to become the Joe Wicks of reading. I’m evangelical about the fact that reading for pleasure must come first for all of us, and I’d love to get us all feeling energised and excited about the habit, and picking up the lighter books, in order to find the confidence to move onto the heavier ones.
“Read Yourself Happy is a book for everyone whose anxiety makes them feel stuck, which shows how developing a regular reading habit can help you channel your racing mind towards new worlds and fresh ideas.”
Buchanan hosts the chart-topping podcast, “You’re Booked”, where she interviews writers from all over the world about their reading habits, and is the founder of the Creative Confidence Clinic, where she provides practical and emotional support for writers. She is published across fiction and non-fiction including Limelight (Little, Brown) most recently.