Encounters with great art can be absorbing, unsettling and even painful. How has this been tamed into mere ‘reading for pleasure’? Encounters with great art can be absorbing, unsettling and even painful. How has this been tamed into mere ‘reading for pleasure’? I t is the UK’s National Year of Reading. Specifically, this government-led scheme is about “reading for pleasure” and “the joy of reading”. This is not a matter of whimsy. Research has linked reading for pleasure in childhood to a host