The National Year of Reading celebrates the joy' of books. But let's not forget they can also be deeply troubling, too | Charlotte Higgins

"Research has linked reading for pleasure in childhood to a host of positive educational and socioeconomic outcomes. But now 14 years after the Department for Education, in a more innocent time, commissioned a chunky report on the matter—reading books for pleasure is an activity in crisis. The culprit usually blamed for this falling-off is the smartphone and its many short-term distractions; the mere presence of a smartphone in the room, recent research suggests, has an impact on our ability to concentrate."

"If reading really was such an immense pleasure, wouldn't people be doing it anyway? Isn't there something of a contradiction between the idea of reading for pleasure and the notion that engaging in this activity brings a ton of extrinsic benefits (all that extra attainment)? There's something else, too: surely it's not only the reading itself that's important, but what you choose to read, and what you do with the experience of having read it."

"In Jane Austen's Persuasion, the work of Byron—with all its hopeless agony—is not advised as sensible reading matter for a melancholy man, and the reading of novels has to be defended in her novel Northanger Abbey; Homer is excluded from Plato's Republic in part because the poems include morally questionable scenes of gods behaving badly. Self-evidently, there are some books that may harm you, even if you take pleasure in reading them—just as spending all day online may harm you."

The UK's National Year of Reading promotes reading for pleasure, supported by research linking childhood reading to positive educational and socioeconomic outcomes. However, reading for pleasure is declining, with smartphones commonly blamed for reducing concentration and mental engagement with literature. The article questions this narrative, noting contradictions: if reading were truly pleasurable, people would pursue it naturally; promoting reading for extrinsic benefits contradicts the concept of pleasure; and the quality and nature of what is read matters significantly. Historical perspectives, including Jane Austen and Plato, recognized that not all reading is beneficial—some content may harm readers despite providing pleasure. The current smartphone-focused anxiety has eliminated nuanced consideration of reading's actual value and potential drawbacks.

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