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Wellbeing
July 03,2021


ADULTS ENGAGING IN READING FOR PLEASURE

We often hear about why it’s important that children read for pleasure, but we
don’t seem to place that same importance on adults’ reading habits. So, is it
important that adults read for enjoyment? And if so, how many adults actually
read for pleasure on a regular basis?

‘Australians read regularly and a lot of people read as many as 10 books in a
year.’ ©GoodStudio/Shutterstock

Reading for pleasure is defined as reading that we do of our own free will,
anticipating the satisfaction that we will get from the act of reading. It
typically involves materials or texts that reflect our own choice, at a time and
place that suits us (Clark & Rumbold, 2006).

Children and teenagers are often encouraged to find a love of reading or to find
texts that they enjoy consuming. But adults aren’t usually afforded the same
level of encouragement. So, is it important that adults engage in reading for
enjoyment?



A study published in 2017 by the Australia Council for the Arts and Macquarie
University found that 51 per cent of the 3000 participants in the sample were
considered occasional readers (those who have read between one and 10 books in
the last 12 months) and 41 per cent were considered frequent readers (more than
10 books).

‘Australians read regularly and a lot of people read as many as 10 books in a
year. With people living such busy lives, that really surprised me,’ Dr Judith
Seaboyer, a Senior Lecturer in Literary Studies at the University of Queensland,
tells Wellbeing by Teacher.

The survey also shows that, on average, Australians spend about seven hours
reading each week (including books, the internet and other media), of which
about 70 per cent is reading for pleasure.

Participants in the survey were also asked about the types of books they enjoy
reading. Among fiction books, almost half of respondents indicated crime,
mystery or thrillers as a category they enjoyed reading, while the most
frequently nominated non-fiction genre was autobiography, biography or memoirs.

‘Research shows that Australians’ most preferred texts are mysteries and
thrillers,’ Seaboyer says. ‘There’s nothing wrong with that, except that you
don’t need to be particularly engaged to read these types of texts.’

She says that Australian adults have become part of a speed-reading culture,
which means fewer people are reading deeply and thoughtfully.

‘How many of us read a novel to see how the plot sorts itself out and get to the
end, and then put it back on the shelf or take it back to the library? The kinds
of novels we mostly read for pleasure nowadays are escapist.’


THE SKILL OF DEEP READING

Seaboyer says that unless the cognitive skills required for deep reading are
developed and nurtured, new generations of readers may not learn to venture
beyond the shallows of the reading experience.

‘When you immerse yourself in a book, the neuroscience tells us that what
happens in the brain is a little bit like that happens when you meditate. It
actually helps us to relax and to think and to move into some kind of other
space. It’s not an escapist space, but it’s an enriching space.’

Seaboyer adds that adult readers can be easily distracted by the availability of
digital information, consuming media in short grabs as they click from page to
page. Deep reading, in contrast, is a learned skill that requires the
development of particular neural networks.

‘What deep reading does for us is it helps us to keep those neural pathways
working well and it helps us to keep learning more about the world. It keeps us
open-minded, it makes us hospitable to other ideas and so on,’ Seaboyer says.

‘The more that we deep read, the more practise they do, the better we become at
that kind of reading. But if we stop doing it and we stop maintaining those
pathways, if we as adults cease to practise that long-form, immersive, engaged
reading – we lose that skill.’


HOW TO EMBED READING INTO YOUR DAILY ROUTINE

If you’re a person that struggles to read long-form texts, it can be difficult
to know how to begin embedding reading for enjoyment into your routine. Seaboyer
says that while it is difficult, there are simple steps you can take to get
started.

‘I think you need to think of it as something that you do in your life that is
important to make time for. So for somebody with three kids and a full-time job,
that’s perhaps going to be at the weekend. Just set the time aside,’ she says.

Seaboyer also recommends thinking of reading as a kind of hospitality. ‘Think to
yourself, I’m the host and my book is my guest and I’m trying to understand that
text, I’m trying to open myself up to that text and be prepared to hear what it
has to say to me.’

By approaching the text in this way, she explains, you’ll be encouraged to
engage in deep reading and to consider the text beyond the conceptual structures
of the plot. ‘Any act of reading that goes beyond the conceptual structures can
be seen as an opportunity to understand others, to open your trust to that and
to accept the text for what it is.’

References

Clark, C., & Rumbold, K. (2006). Reading for Pleasure: A Research Overview.
National Literacy Trust.

Throsby, D., Zwar, J., & Morgan, C. (2017). Australian book readers: Survey
method and results. Macquarie Economics Research Paper, 1, 2017.

How do you care for your own health and wellbeing? Do you have a story you’d
like to share with Wellbeing by Teacher? Here’s a handy guide on how to get
started.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rebecca Vukovic is the Deputy Editor of Teacher.

More articles by Rebecca Vukovic

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