The National Library Board (NLB) launched READ! Singapore 2009 on Friday, with 'Dreams and Choices' its theme for the year.

It is an apt choice that will resonate well with the public in this time of economic uncertainty, said Rear-Admiral (NS) Lui Tuck Yew, who is Acting Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts. He was guest-of-honour at the event's opening ceremony.

'While these are challenging times, we should still be focused on our goals and I do hope that reading and learning is one of them,' he said.

A non-stop reading session will be held from July 3 to 9 at the National Library Building. Participants, in teams of not more than 12, will take turns to read the story of their choice aloud. Each team is expected to take six hours, with no breaks in between.

Sixteen novels and short stories have also been selected by the event's Steering Committee, including John Steinbeck's novel Of Mice And Men. The selected stories will be compiled in anthologies published in English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil.

Also, to celebrate Singapore hosting the 2010 Youth Olympic Games, a short story writing competition has been organised in partnership with Readers' Digest.

Participants, who must be aged between 13 and 17, must submit an entry linked to the theme 'Dare to Dream: Stories of Imagination, Passion and Sporting Excellence'. The competition closed on Sept 30.

READ! Singapore was first launched in 2005, to promote a culture of reading in the country.

Since then, it has reached more than 81,000 people through more than 960 book discussions and activities held in places from community centres to schools.