1.1 The benefits of reading
Reading is known to have a number of health benefits, and this finding is not a recent one. During the First World War (1914–18), Helen Mary Gaskell set up a war library which organised donations of books to sick and wounded soldiers wherever they were based. During this period the practice of ‘bibliotherapy’ emerged. Bibliotherapy is ‘the use of literature to improve people’s mental health’ (Mårtensson and Andersson, 2015, p. 62) or ‘the therapeutic use of literature’ (Howie, 1983, p. 287).
The effect of reading books is argued to impact not just the mind but also the body. Bavishi, Slade and Levy (2016) carried out a longitudinal study of individuals aged over 50 years old, and found that people who read books actually lived slightly longer than those that didn’t, with reading books reducing mortality risk by 20%. They also found that reading books (as opposed to magazines and newspapers) rather than simply reading versus not reading was important in the survival advantage.