Reading/Writing

If Reading Brings You Joy, You May Be In Bad Company...I Think

A Booker Prize judge says she hates when someone says they love to read. Is she onto something?

Why I'm writing about Mary Beard and the joy of reading

After hearing the Booker Prize judge say she can't stand people saying they love reading, I had to tune in and see for myself why this woman would dare say we cannot enjoy books! However, things took an interesting turn once I dug in more...

Imagine you’re just learning how to read. It doesn’t matter how old you are — you love reading now. Something has finally “clicked” in your brain, and you are exposed to new words, new worlds, and new authors. You can’t get enough of reading.

Loving to read is undermining its power

Then you log on to social media and hear the chair of the 2026 Booker Prize judging panel say,

She goes on to explain that she dislikes the common question, “What book first sparked your love of reading?” because, in her view, this undermines what reading truly is.

Say what?

I like that question personally because then, I can talk about my favorite book!

By now, as a new reader, you are confused. You are so happy to finally be able to read confidently and with minimal help, only to be told, “Reading is not to be enjoyed!” This would break anyone’s heart. It’s like when I first started using the phrase, “That was the bomb!” in 2006, and someone kindly tapped me on the shoulder and said, “We don’t use that phrase anymore.”

Yeah. Color me heartbroken.

I digress.

Is Mary Beard being pretentious?

When I was a BookTuber — I made the argument that for me books are more than enjoyment at this point. I’ve been reading books for so long that it is wild for me to call it merely “pleasurable”, yet in many ways, it is for my enjoyment.

When I read a horror, I am spooked.

When I read a romance, I swoon.

When I read something I never knew a thing about, I am surprised.

For sure, reading provides enjoyment, and it continues to.

I don’t think Mary Beard was being overly pretentious when she said this, but her statement is just another cog in the social media system. Once something sparks a debate online — it goes viral. Meaning gets lost in the plot, and honestly, I wish she never began her sentence with, “I cannot bear…”

It’s kind of like how I wish the bible would have left out the word tithing altogether, then maybe these preachers can get humbled…

Okay. I went off topic.

Mary Beard said what she said.

Her words carry weight because this isn’t simply some woman who was chosen to judge the Booker Prize. She is a major British classicist(meaning her academic specialty is studying ancient Greece and Rome, literature, art, religion, etc.). She is also an author and broadcaster who has written MANY books.

This woman is also a “public-facing historian,” appearing on BBC radio and television, and in 2018 she was made a Dame.

So when she talks about reading, books, history, or literature, she is coming from decades of studying how humans use texts and stories to understand themselves and their societies.

And I get it.

I get her.

Books do more than give joy

I get where she is coming from because after four decades of reading books, I reflected on where I am in this stage of my life when it comes to reading. It makes me wonder,

Have we reduced reading to a form of self-care when books have historically been capable of doing something much more powerful — like changing us?

Self care means comfort, relaxation, soothing, escape, and emotional wellness.

But books have done so much more.

1. Books allow humans to preserve memory beyond a single lifetime. The Library of Congress describes writing, printing, and other recording technologies as crucial to passing down laws, history, epics, and literature.
2. Books redistribute knowledge. For centuries, only the elite could get their hands on books(and there’s some history of elites who had scribes read for them). This means books were a kind of tech for knowledge distribution. We couldn’t meet a philosopher in person, but we can through their words today.
3. Books helped us become literate. Understanding, interpreting, creating, and communicating information.
4. Books preserve the voices of power that some would rather have us forget. Books like A Knock at Midnight, which holds essays by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. or powerful prophetic books like Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower*and George Orwell’s 1984.
5. Books teach. You can’t personally experience ancient Rome, but you can read about it. I am fascinated more with it after reading Kate Quinn’s The Mistress of Rome.​

Books can be many things.

They bring us joy, pain, understanding, and transformation. Mary Beard had more to say on the topic according to What the Book,

Mary Beard says we can’t compare golf and reading. They both give us enjoyment in many ways, but reading is an enjoyment that offers more benefits to society.

That’s what I got out of this.

If you just got into reading or you are getting reacquainted with reading, I implore you to not let Mary Beard’s words distract you and make you feel as if you can’t enjoy books. Mary is not saying books do not bring pleasure, and as a reader yourself, you know how much joy certain books bring you.

I think what Mary is saying is that reading has saved and is saving humanity in many ways — so it is deeper than joy; it is a passion for history, for literature, for transformation.

For life.

Thank you for reading!

*Affiliate product links may be in this post. If you click one and decide to purchase, Amazon may reward me with some coins.

Topics: 2026 Booker Awards, Mary Beard, Reading

Erica writes about the myths we are sold about work, success, and survival- and what's really behind them. She believes writing and literature are medicine and the cure. Sign up for more pieces like this, delivered fresh to your inbox.​
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