Reading for pleasure boosts self-esteem | The Bookseller

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.