Reading can be for solitary pleasure or it can be a quotidian task. Some people avoid books in favour of other forms of recreation; others read everywhere from bathrooms to Tube carriages. Some people love reading so much they even study English till the very end of school.
In fact a decade ago English was the most popular subject at A-level. It was also one of the most popular university degrees. This year it was the 12th most popular A-level course, lagging behind other subjects like maths and geography, physics and history. And the number of students who took English at university has fallen by a third in the past decade. The status of English is in steep decline in the British education system; schoolchildren and university undergraduates are falling out of love with it.
