It is not true that we have only one life to live; if we can read, we can live as many more lives and as many kinds of lives as we wish.
S. I. Hayakawa
I love reading. I always have. From the moment I could read, my nose has been happiest pointing to a page in a book. And yes, I do love smelling them too! From an early age, I discovered that reading could bring me more sustained pleasure than any other activity. I not only read stories, I became one of the characters, sharing in their experiences and joining in their adventures. Through books I led many lives, explored jungles, sailed on ships, had a different family and experienced freedom. This is what reading for pleasure can do for a child.
Sadly, research shows a long-term decline in children’s enjoyment of reading. A 2025 UK study by the National Literacy Trust found that only one in three children and young people aged eight to eighteen enjoyed reading in their free time. This was the lowest level in 20 years. Although the 2026 findings show a small improvement, enjoyment remains low. Yet we know that reading is important not only for future academic success but also for emotional wellbeing. There is also some evidence that reading fiction may help children develop empathy.
Another piece of the reading puzzle is the reading habits of parents. When children see their parents read, they grow up believing that reading is a part of life. When my daughter was about seven, she watched me read Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy. She too wanted to read a book that was as thick as that paperback. I took her to the local bookshop and we bought a copy of the collected Milly-Molly-Mandy stories. When she finished her book before I finished mine, she was so proud of herself for beating her mother in our thick-book reading race!
Now a mother herself, she is passing on the reading bug. My granddaughter has her own bookshelf filled with books which she loves to pull out and ‘read’. She already holds a book the right way around, turns the pages and enjoys looking at the pictures. Both her mother and father read to her and, to make things interesting, I read to her in German. Of all her toys, books are what she gravitates towards, and she can spend a long time looking at them without getting bored.
My hope for her is that she keeps enjoying books, that they transport her to many different places and that, through the power of imagination, she is able to live as many lives as she wishes.
