How to swap games consoles for books (and get kids reading)

Alex Scarrow's son was a gamer not a reader, so that's why he decided to use every trick he learned as a games designer to write addictive books that keep readers coming back for "just one more go"

My son, Jacob, is 17 now. He's at college and he works part time in Waterstones bookshop and, when his increasingly hectic social life permits, he reads novels.

When he was 11 he didn't. Pretty much ALL his spare time was devoted to playing on his xBox. I kind of blame myself for that. Having worked in the computer game industry for 10 years as a games designer, I was the one who had keenly introduced computer gaming into the household. I think I justified that in many ways" if he was playing "strategy" games, I argued that it was boosting his ability to multi-task and problem solve. If it was a "run-n-gun" shooter, I rationalised that it was increasing his reaction times and "blink-thinking".