Pleasures of reading
As a very small boy, the first pleasure I had from reading was being able to crow over some of my peers who couldn’t. I became less of a little snob as I grew up. At every stage, of course, the reader finds different sources of pleasure. As a child, as far as I can remember, I looked for interest, fantasy and a good laugh. Up to the age of eight or nine, children seem to live in a world of half fantasy and half reality. Many enjoy situations in which adults are outwitted. Thus, popular comics were Dandy, Beano and Rainbow, and not the sobersides Children’s Newspaper. The Richmal Crompton ‘William’ books were great favorites. So was Enid Blyton. Adventure was found in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and R L Stevenson. Crime detection meant Sherlock Homes. Mystery and horror were supplied by writers such as Bram Stoker and Wilkie Collins. In more modern times, there seems to be little significant change, except that Superman, E.T. and space travel yarns have been added.
The common factor in most of this is that the child and young person can pick up a book and escape from the humdrum into a new world of excitement, sometimes identifying with the hero or heroine. Girls tend to favor school stories and, later, magazine romances and romantic novels, taste for the latter often lasting well into adult life.
The attraction of escapism, modified of course by experience, lasts into later life. Most adults enjoy a detective story for relaxation. The murder or crime concerned is rarely dealt with psychologically. It is merely the peg on which to hang the clues leading to the final solution. The best of such stories also develop character to some extent and reflect the social back- ground of the years in which the novel is set. Thus, the pleasure of reading, says Agatha Christie, is partly nostalgia and partly mental exercise. Emotion plays a negligible part.
Another genre of books written for pleasure and relaxation is the humorous novel, represented by P G Wodehouse, Mark Twain and Stephen Leacock. Here, the amusement lies in comedy of situation, turn of phrase, and very clever plotting. Again, they are period pieces, in the case of Wodehouse evocative of the idle young rich of the 30s, and entirely without social comment. Humor draws the sting from inequality.
I read the above categories for pleasure, relaxation, and a good laugh. However, most educated people have a balanced reading diet which develops over the years as a result of specialization in one subject or another. Most of us have developed a general interest in politics and current events, and in democratic countries these are well covered in the responsible press and in specialized magazines. In fact, all subjects are catered for by specialized magazines, ranging from agriculture to car maintenance. In these contexts, the pleasure of riding is derived from interest in the subject.
Interest in politics and current events leads to the development of a historical perspective, and hence interest in the past. This is well catered for in an immense body of historical and biographical literature. Social history is necessary to the understanding of current trends. Historical romances often provide a good read, and the best of them are very informative about the events of past times.
However, the classics provide the best all-round source of pleasure. It is one thing to have to study texts for one’s A or O Levels. That can be hard work. It is quite another to rid them for pleasure in later life. They offer a more sophisticated source of interest than can be obtained from any other genre; development of character, social and political comment, action and reflection, humor, pathos, sometimes tragedy. The appeal of poetry should not be ignored. The best of it requires the ultimate in the command of language.
