How Healthy is Reading?

• 19th century newly literate women were considered vulnerable and there was a fear that they could be manipulated by fiction!
• Similarly, newly literate men would turn to crime like that witnessed in the novel.
• However, some politicians, journalists and library advocates recognised that ‘good’ literature was beneficial and wanted to spread the ‘reading habit’.
• In the aftermath of WWI, the use of carefully chosen reading was introduced as a form of therapy.
• In 2003, the UK introduced a Books on Prescription programme, which provided patients in British hospitals with a range of reading materials categorised to alleviate various traumas and mental illnesses.