Reading for Pleasure by Lynda Waterhouse

I write in the hope that someone will read and enjoy my work. .

I read for lots of reasons: research, acquisition of knowledge, to bake a perfect cake but most of all dear reader I do it for sheer unadulterated pleasure.

 The path of a reader is not a runway but more a hack through a forest, with individual twists and turns, entanglements and moments of surprise.  (Holden, 2004)

I found this quote is at the beginning of Christina Clark and Kate Rumbold’s 2006 research for The National Literacy Trust on Reading for Pleasure. It got me musing.

A few years ago Frugal Husband had found that he had lost some of the pleasure of reading. He dutifully joined a friend’s new book group where he encountered The Wall by Marlen Haushofer.

This novel inspired him to form a breakaway group called Post-apocalyptic Book Group. He wanted to read more. They wracked their brains, asked friends, did some research to select:

Ridley Walker by Russell Hoban, The Last Man - Mary Shelley, Night Work - Thomas Glavinic, Year of the Flood - Margaret Atwood, A Canticle for Liebowitz - Walter M Miller, Dr Bloodmoney - Philip K Dick and The Road - Cormac McCarthy.

These novels inspired them to Dystopic Book Group where after a similar selection process they read: Bend Sinister - Vladimir Nabakov, Benefits - Zoe Fairbairns, 1984 - George Orwell, Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury, Brave New World - Aldous Huxley, All Quiet on the Orient Express - Magnus Mills, The Scheme for Full Employment - Magnus Mills

Revolutionary and Imperial books followed on.

He is currently on Monster Book Group which includes:

Dracula - Bram Stoker, Frankenstein - Mary Shelley, The Island of Dr Moreau - HG Wells, The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break - Steven Sherill, Kraken Wakes - John Wyndham, Moby Dick - Herman Melville, Kornwolf - Tristan Egolf, The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova.

And where do we find these magical forests to inspire us? They used to be called libraries. There may still be one near you where you can find these treasures or continue your own journey along the reading path