when i was young, the same people were railing against enid blyton. there seems to be this unspoken belief that reading should be "difficult" or "challenging" t

when i was young, the same people were railing against enid blyton. there seems to be this unspoken belief that reading should be "difficult" or "challenging" to have any merit, and that reading for pure pleasure was somehow not just suspect but bad for you. a popular phrase was "rotting the mind", by analogy with sugary foods rotting the teeth. even as a kid i thought that was deeply misguided, and nothing has changed my opinion since.