Why we should all do this ‘childish’ activity more often

A remarkable thing happened to me recently.

Sitting on a chair in my living room one weekday evening, I did something I’ve never done before. I cried while reading a book. The story wasn’t particularly sadder than others I’ve read, nor was I in a particularly fragile mood – in fact, I had read this same book only a few months earlier with no such consequence.

The language was unchanged between readings and no dramatic event had occurred to make the text more poignant than it had been. On that evening, however, I read the story aloud.

Reading a book out loud can transform the way you experience it.Credit: iStock

Now, unless you’re a young child or the parent of one, I’m willing to bet that sounds odd.

Despite the fact we all learn to read vocally, first with our parents reading to us, then us to them, we abandon the joyful communal experience of reading as soon as we can.

It is a childish thing to read aloud with others; adults read in their heads, by themselves. As we are children when we learn this, we’re quick to do anything that makes us grown-ups.

However, as is so often the case, that’s a mistake.

Tweaking the Bible, C. S. Lewis put it best: “When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown-up.”

I can’t claim to have initiated my own Damascene conversion to reading aloud – I was lucky enough to have somebody bring the idea back into my life, for which I couldn’t be more grateful.

Reading to someone, or being read to, is a beautiful, intimate act. It is a comforting balm against the world, a time to abandon screens and a rare moment that forces one to be present.

It allows you to discover something new with a friend, a relative, a partner, for you to share something sincere that has shaped you, or for you to learn what has made them.

Better still, it allows the author to sing.

All of those techniques of language you studiously committed to memory are great on the page but magical when spoken. Assonance, alliteration, onomatopoeia and the rest – they’re more than theory!

Take this sentence from Truman Capote’s A Christmas Memory (the very story that so rudely made me cry): “Possibly we doze; but the beginnings of dawn splash us like cold water: we’re up, wide-eyed and wandering while we wait for others to waken.”

Academically, you can recognise literary techniques. But read them aloud and I challenge you not to smile.

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Fewer of us than ever are taking the time to read, and even when we do, it’s questionable just how much we understand. There are growing concerns of illiteracy, or merely functional literacy, around the world – so much so that in the UK, 2026 is the National Year of Reading, backed by the government.

We are also more lonely than ever, struggling to find real connection despite living in a reality defined by being more connected than ever.

The cure for each of these is simple: read more, be together more.

Christmas is the perfect time for you to give it a try. If you’re nervous to suggest it, there’s probably a child around you can pin it on. If not, blame C. S. Lewis. Or me. I’m very easy to blame.

Reading aloud is an act of defiance, an incitement to communal experience and, simply, joyful. Besides, why should kids have all the fun?

The Telegraph, London

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