The idea that reading a good book can be beneficial to one’s mental health has been around as long as books have. Nevertheless, empirical research into the effects of literary reading on mental well-being has only started to flourish in the past few decades (cf. Kuijpers Reference Kuijpers2018; Billington & Steenberg Reference Billington, Steenberg, Kuiken and Jacobs2021). This review of Kevin Harvey’s book The Literary Lifeline is coming from three researchers conducting empirical research—computational, linguistic, and ethnographic—on the potential benefits of participation in shared reading. As such, we might seem like the perfect reviewers for Harvey’s work, which is a book that revolves around the therapeutic benefits both of reading and of writing.
Harvey discusses what he has termed ‘the reading revolution’ in chapter 1, outlining recent research on reading and well-being, with a focus on the practice of shared reading, which he accompanies with reflections on his own practice as a reading group facilitator. In chapter 2, he switches to a passionate plea for the British public library system, again augmented with a look into how a particular public library ‘saved’ him personally from a life as a police officer. Chapter 3 provides an interesting look into how poetry is utilized in a new culture of dementia care, where, in our understanding of it, it is not the patients that are helped, but the caregivers, as the use of poetry allows them to see patients as whole and creative human beings, rather than just people suffering from dementia. In chapter 4, Harvey keeps a diary of his visits with Robert, a retired English literature professor, who is diagnosed with dementia. The two men read together, and through this experience, Harvey recognizes the rich potential that poetry offers them to connect. Chapter 5 presents the transcript of an interview with Dr. Gavin Francis, who is a ‘doctor-writer’. Their conversation touches on similar themes discussed in the previous chapters of the book, but focuses more on Francis’ ‘double life’ as both a practitioner of medicine and an author. The last chapter of the book is perhaps the most personal chapter, as it relates the thoughts and feelings of Harvey, in the months after his brother’s unexpected death. This chapter and the previous one home in on the therapeutic benefits of writing, rather than reading.
While at face value this book seems a perfect match with our research interests, as experts in the field, we did feel it was lacking in certain aspects. But let us start with some praise. The perspective taken in this book is deeply personal. This is perhaps unusual in an academic volume, but we feel it is warranted in a book that explores the connection between literature and well-being. We are of the opinion that this field of research could benefit from more auto-ethnographic work, like the present volume by Harvey.
Taking a more subjective stance as a researcher is common practice in the investigation of bibliotherapy, but so far, we have seen personal accounts on shared reading mostly from the point of view of a group member or observer. Harvey’s account of starting out as a shared reading group leader in dementia care thus fills an important gap, and showcases an example of failure and disillusionment. This critical reflection is important, as negative experiences with the practice of shared reading are often not shared in the research literature, even though they provide us with incredibly useful information. Furthermore, this account adds to the authenticity and vulnerability that is displayed by Harvey throughout the book.
Nevertheless, one of the main issues we had with the book was that it was not entirely clear to us who the intended audience was. After all, Bloomsbury has marketed this book under their ‘Bloomsbury Academic’ line, more specifically under the subject category of ‘Sociolinguistics and Linguistic Anthropology’, so it seems reasonable to hold corresponding expectations for the academic side of this book’s remit. From the perspective of an academic, especially one focused on the study of reading, the book offers many thought-provoking personal insights that might help to inspire future research. However, as researchers of reading and lovers of books in general, we felt like his passionate pleas for reading and libraries were a bit wasted on us. We did not need to be convinced of the healing powers of literature. What we would have loved to see instead were more references to theoretical and especially empirical studies on reading and well-being. At times, when works were cited, descriptions of methodological procedures were missing entirely. What bothered us most, was the fact that we saw many missed opportunities when it came to connecting his own very rich data (e.g. the ethnographic field notes on his readings together with Robert, the interview data with Gavin Francis) to existing research. For example, a meta-theoretical reflection using poetic auto-ethnography (Hanauer Reference Hanauer2020, Reference Hanauer2025) on his diary entries after his brother passed away would have given even more depth to that data and situated it into a larger, more universally relatable context.
Harvey’s writing style, which combines personal anecdotes with more explicit knowledge transfer, while refreshing and engaging, does contribute to the reader’s confusion regarding the book’s intended audience, as well its overall coherence and argument. The chapters differ considerably from one another, both in terms of thematic focus and format (i.e. there are diary entries, an interview, and autobiographical accounts). As a consequence, the transitions between chapters are quite abrupt and readers could have benefitted from clearer guidance in this respect. Some chapters could have been fairly easily and explicitly linked to one another, but instead Harvey leaves that to the reader, which at times can feel frustrating. To give an example, shared reading, which is discussed in chapter 1, is frequently offered in public libraries, which is the focus of chapter 2, yet this connection is not utilized as a thematic bridge. Particularly striking is chapter 5, which presents a transcribed interview with a ‘doctor-writer’, without any attempt to embed it in the larger narrative of the book or previous research on medical writing, fiction writing, or reading, writing, and well-being. The postscripts do offer valuable additional insights for some of the chapters, which make the thematic connections more apparent. However, we felt that these perspectives were missing from the chapters themselves.
Related to that, and perhaps to the question about intended audience, is the fact that critical reflection on the relationship between reading and well-being, the core theme of the book, is largely missing. For instance, shared reading’s potential shortcomings and limitations as a mental health intervention were only marginally addressed. While the idea that shared reading could be prescribed is introduced, the question whether such a practice would actually be feasible, appropriate, or even desirable remains unanswered. Similarly, chapter 3, which explores poetry-reading interventions for people living with dementia, would have benefitted from reflection on how different dementia stages (and individual differences among patients) can affect the appropriateness and effectiveness of such interventions. The absence of critical reflection on certain practices and statements is a pity, especially because the book’s aims and intended audience are not clearly defined. A lack of critical reflection is more disappointing if one assumes, as we did, that academics are the book’s main intended readers.
Although the book does not offer many new insights and is lacking in depth for academics who are specialized in literature and well-being, the chapters, when taken as separate pieces, are extremely pleasant to read. His writing style is engaging and feels authentic and his use of different reporting formats is very engaging, as it showcases different ways to engage with the same theme. The range of topics he covers to address that theme is also rich, from shared reading to personal diary writing. His prose is interspersed with illustrations for literary works, historical anecdotes, and here and there a reference to empirical research, making it very different from a usual academic reading experience, which we welcomed.
In general, we would recommend this work to lay-readers as well as to those academics who are interested in exploring this research field for the first time. For researchers who already have experience with reading research on the relationship between literature and well-being, we would not recommend this book, as it would not offer them new or critical insight into their topic of study. For readers of Language in Society, this book could be an interesting read, even though it does not include a typical linguistic perspective.
