ABSTRACT
Why do people read? The answer, as regards the great majority, is: ‘They don’t.’ The majority of mankind read nothing at all; of the remainder, the majority read only the picture papers. Of those who read something more than picture papers, the majority never gets as far as books. All the readers of books – grave and gay, profound and superficial, scientific, literary or lurid – all put together are a very small fraction of the population. Nevertheless they differ among themselves in all sorts of ways. There are those who read in order to acquire information; they are generally very young. There are those who read in order to acquire confirmation of their prejudices; these people are what is called mature. But the great bulk of readers are seeking neither knowledge nor support for their own opinions, but an escape from reality into the world of imagination.
