People who read regularly for pleasure have greater levels of
self-esteem, are less stressed, and can cope better with difficult
situations than lapsed or non-readers, new research for Galaxy Quick
Reads has found.
While the research, carried out by Dr Josie Billington at the
University of Liverpool, found that 58% of people read regularly, it
found that 16m adults in the UK – almost a third of the UK adult
population – are lapsed readers, who used to read but either rarely read
now or don’t read at all.
Cathy Rentzenbrink, director of Quick Reads, said: “I have always
found reading to be a great source of comfort and this research confirms
what I have long witnessed professionally: reading can help any one of
us to be healthier, happier and ultimately to get more out of life.”
The research found that people who read for 30 minutes a week are 20%
more likely to report greater life satisfaction than those who do not,
while readers are 21% less likely to report feelings of depression and
are 10% more likely to report good self-esteem than non-readers.
Lapsed readers said that barriers to reading again included lack of
time and of enjoyment. The research found that 2.2m people in the UK who
used to read now rarely or never pick up a book because of a difficult
event in their lives, such as ill health, death or getting divorced and
that 1.2m adults have stopped reading as a result of some form of
depression.
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