in an attempt to encourage reading habits among school children to improve their language skills the central board of secondary education cbse has recommended a selection of books from various publications for students to read this is part of the boards new reading project that aims to inculcate good reading habits in children the list of recommended books includes 14 books of katha a charitable organisation in the capital seven of the katha titles are in english and seven in hindi the selection presents a group of best selling books from fiction as well as the nonfiction category according to vineet joshi chairman cbse the board constantly encourages schools to provide multifold learning experiences to young children good reading habits help children in acquiring power of imagination expression and appreciation of literature though all the skills of gaining proficiency in a language are equally important nevertheless reading habit helps tremendously in improving comprehension accuracy fluency and in increasing vocabulary reading provokes questioning helps in generating ideas and inspires students to think it supports the curriculum by enhancing language competence strengthening of continuous and comprehensive evaluation cce has added further impetus in fostering interest in children to read books as part of the formative assessment in cce schools are being advised to take up reading projects schools have also been encouraged to use multiple modes of assessment such as conducting reviews script reading discussion open houses interaction with the authors etc devaraj pr assistant director sales and marketing katha says the reading habits of students in our country are coming down katha books create interest in reading and also help children improve their language and understand the indian culture cbse affiliated schools can select the books of their choice students dont have to pay for any of the books