What are the benefits of shared reading?

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Many of our members come week after week for the sheer pleasure of the shared reading experience. Shared reading is not therapy, but it is therapeutic, and has a proven positive effect on health and wellbeing. In a recent survey carried out by The Reader, 93% of people said that they felt better after attending a Shared Reading session and 91% said their confidence and communication skills had improved. One group member said: 

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"The reading groups are a different kind of medicine and it’s through them that I’ve found a way back to life."

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It is the power of the literature itself together with the process of engaging with good literature, as a member of a supportive group, that brings about the feelings of increased well-being frequently noted by members and Reader Leaders alike.

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 "Everybody who experiences it says that you have a different kind of experience for the time that it is happening…it is like a meditation…or a retreat and…that’s good for people. That’s why it works."

Jane Davis, Director and Founder, The Reader

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Here are some of the things that members of Make Friends, With A Book groups here in Leicestershire have said about their experience:

• It’s nice to have time where you are not thinking about anything else

• What brings me back is the immersion – we all get so involved

• I like the poetry especially – discussing it makes it comprehensible

• I often don’t speak to anyone all day so it’s good to just speak to people

• Tuesday afternoon is one of the peaks of my week

• I’m learning the art of conversation again

• It’s serious, and I want it to be serious

• My eyesight means I can’t read books anymore so this is great

• It’s the people – it’s friendly