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

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

Encounters with great art can be absorbing, unsettling and even painful. How has this been tamed into mere ‘reading for pleasure’? It is the UK’s National Year of Reading. Specifically, this government-led scheme is about “reading for pleasure” and “the joy of reading”. This is not a matter of whimsy. 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...

By Charlotte Higgins