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When a teenager is preparing for boards or JEE, reading a novel or a popular science book can look like time taken from "real" study. The data suggests the opposite: young people who read for enjoyment tend to do better at school, including in subjects that are not about reading. Here is what the evidence shows and how to build the habit at home without turning it into homework.
What does PISA data say about reading for pleasure?
The OECD's PISA survey tests 15-year-olds in many countries and asks them about their habits. A 2011 OECD summary of the 2009 round, Do students today read for pleasure?, reported:
Students who read daily for enjoyment scored the equivalent of about one and a half years of schooling higher in reading than those who did not.
The key difference between strong and weak readers lay in whether they read for enjoyment every day, "rather than in how much time they spend reading".
Across OECD countries, 37% of students said they did not read for enjoyment, and the share reading daily for enjoyment fell from 69% in 2000 to 64% in 2009.
Girls read for enjoyment more than boys in every country except Korea, with a 20 percentage-point gap on average. Among socio-economically advantaged students, 72% read daily for enjoyment, compared with 56% of disadvantaged students.
The report's bottom line for parents and teachers was to provide "reading materials that students find interesting and relevant".
PISA is a survey, so it shows association, not cause. Children who already read well may simply enjoy reading more. The next two studies help with that question.
Does reading for pleasure help with maths too?
A British study followed people born in 1970, using 3,583 who took vocabulary and maths tests at age 16. Children who read for pleasure made more progress between 10 and 16 in vocabulary and, to a smaller but still substantial degree, in maths. Reading for pleasure was more strongly linked to this progress than parents' education.
A meta-analysis of 99 studies with 7,669 participants found that leisure reading and reading skill feed each other in an "upward spiral": good readers read more, and reading more makes them better. Frequent readers were more successful students, and poor readers also appeared to benefit from independent reading.
How can you encourage reading at home?
Pressure tends to kill pleasure, so think less about assigning books and more about making reading easy and appealing.
Let your child choose. Comics, cricket biographies, science fiction, manga, popular science: it all counts. The OECD's advice is about interest and relevance, not about classics.
Make books visible and close. A small shelf in the study area, a book in the bag for the coaching commute, a library card.
Protect a short daily slot. Ten to fifteen minutes before lights out, with the phone already outside the room, is easier to keep than an hour on Sunday.
Read where they can see you. Children notice what adults do with their own free time.
Talk, don't test. Ask "What was the best part?" rather than quizzing on chapters. A reading log for marks makes it schoolwork.
Connect to their goals. A future engineer might enjoy the life of a scientist. Our pieces on Srinivasa Ramanujan's notebooks and C. V. Raman's discovery are a good place to start.
What about teenagers in exam years?
Exam years are when reading usually stops. You don't need to fight that completely. Keep a small, guilt-free habit: one short chapter a night, or a popular science book that sits next to the syllabus. When a book raises a question, such as why the sky is blue, your child can look up the idea in the Fermi Concept Library, which has a lesson for every concept in physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics and computing.
Start this week with one change: put three books your child might like somewhere they will see them every day.
