The Literary Lifeline
eBook - ePub

The Literary Lifeline

Bibliotherapy and the Transforming Power of Reading

  1. English
  2. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

The Literary Lifeline

Bibliotherapy and the Transforming Power of Reading

About this book

The Literary Lifeline is a tribute to the transporting and consoling power of reading. In this insightful and moving book, Kevin Harvey affirms the importance that language and literature can play in our lives, reminding us of reading's enduring, and sometimes surprising, ability to help us through times of illness, grief, and uncertainty.

Interweaving fragments from his own experience of reading, Harvey takes us on a fascinating tour of reading for therapeutic effect, exploring the rise of shared reading and other uses of bibliotherapy in various social and personal contexts. He argues, through a series of compelling stories and life experiences, that reading not only benefits physical and emotional wellbeing, but that it also humanises the care process, particularly in institutional settings where personhood can be threatened or undermined completely.

Whether he's writing about the drama and delight of reading aloud to other people, the humane magic of the public library, or the loss of his beloved brother and his improvised attempt to read through grief, Harvey offers us an engaging take on the solace of reading and the gift of the written word.

Entertaining, highly accessible, and teeming with illuminating observations and ideas, The Literary Lifeline is a book that will appeal to both scholars and general readers alike.

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Yes, you can access The Literary Lifeline by Kevin Harvey in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Languages & Linguistics & Psychiatry & Mental Health. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Half-Title Page
  3. Dedication
  4. Title Page
  5. Also available from Bloomsbury
  6. Table of Contents
  7. Acknowledgements
  8. Preface
  9. 1 The reading revolution: Shared reading and reading for well-being
  10. 2 What have libraries ever done for us?: In defence of the public library system
  11. 3 Reawakening the mind: Poetry and the new culture of dementia care
  12. 4 The enduring self: A journal
  13. 5 The doctor as writer, the writer as doctor: A conversation with Gavin Francis
  14. 6 April notebook: A death in the family
  15. In lieu of a conclusion: Four short postscripts
  16. Reading and dementia: Poems for reading aloud
  17. Notes and references
  18. Index
  19. Copyright Page