Finland has its flags up again today to honour both Aleksis Kivi Day and Finnish Literature Day, since Kivi is commonly referred to as the creator of modern Finnish literature. When it came to deciding how to approach an article for today my choices were narrowed by Thanos' excellent article for the same day last year.

In the end my inspiration came from two sources close to home - in fact, they live at home - the first was my Finnish wife and the second was our two-year-old daughter. I asked my wife what was the last Finnish novel she had read and she guessed it was probably one of her high school set texts back in the 1990s and even then it was not an enjoyable experience. She is not a fan of fiction preferring to flick through a magazine or read non-fiction, such as health food books and child-raising manuals.

Finnish Literature Day should aim to encourage both Finns and foreigners to read something written by a Finn, whether in the original language or via a translation. While making notes for this article the number of Finnish books I had actually read surprised me, although it pales into insignificance when compared to Ovi's Greek bookworm. My list includes Arto Paasilinna's The Year of the Hare, Tove Jansson's The Summer Book and Väinö Linna's Under the North Star and Unknown Soldier, all of which I thoroughly enjoyed.

In his articles Thanos has emphasised the importance of good translation or there is a danger the heart of the original will be lost, but whether the translator has performed a good job or not it is still worth reading a selection of Finnish literature to gain an insight into its cultural heritage. I am sure many Finns have read works by William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens in Finnish, so they will be aware of the slight nuances between the two, although this does remind me of a moment in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country when Chancellor Gorkon says, "You haven't heard Shakespeare until you've heard it in the original Klingon," to which General Chang performs Hamlet's famous line, "taH pagh, taH be?"

From "To be, or not to be" to Tony B, my brother, who was the lucky recipient of Charles Dicken's David Copperfield on his birthday last year because he had never read anything by one of England's greatest writers and he found that fellow train passengers would be reading it over his shoulder on the commute to and from work. It wasn't until a few months before him that even I had read my first Dicken's novel, which brings me on to the second influence of this article, my daughter.

At present she has is learning Finnish and English simultaneously from her mum and I, which is aided by a large selection of children's books in both languages. We're not inflicting Dickens on her just yet, I prefer to read her Spot the Dog's stories, while Äiti calls him Puppe, although she is more interested in lifting the flaps than paying attention to the puppy's name. As the foreign language speaker I will have to be cunning in my attempts to maintain her interest in reading English books by surreptitiously adding books to her library that I loved as kid, such as Roger Hargreaves' Mr. Men series, Roger McGough's books and maybe some politically incorrect Enid Blyton "Famous Five" adventures, which will then lead on to heavier literary works.

I am cheered that Finland has a Literature Day to encourage everybody to pick up either a classic or contemporary piece of Finnish literature because even if just one person is inspired then the world will have become a better place. It is a shame that the UK doesn't implement an English Literature Day on February 7th to commemorate the birth of Charles Dickens and promote reading among more adults because a book can offer us all the best of times and the worst of times...