Christmas is a lovely time of year if you are lucky enough to be well, to have friends and family around you and to feel in control of your life. However, for many people it is a time that they are afraid of. As the nights draw in during the winter, many older people talk about how much more difficult it is to be on their own.

In a recent interview, Jacqueline Wilson expressed her concerns about children also feeling worried. But I was heartened by her suggestion in another interview that she hopes her books will reassure (使……消除疑虑) children going through a difficult time and make them feel as if they’re not alone.

If reading can, as Jacqueline suggests, provide reassurance and a sense of connection, it has never been more important. Reading could transform one in four adults who experience mental health issues in their lifetime, the 850,000 people in the UK living with dementia (痴呆症) and the one in ten older people who feel lonely.

We always know that a book could be a great Christmas present, but can it also change our lives? Our research at The Reading Agency suggests that it can. We have found evidence to show that reading can benefit our well-being and help us make social connections.

People who read regularly are more satisfied with life and more likely to feel that the things they do are worthwhile; reading for pleasure can also increase sympathy, improve relationships, reduce symptoms of depression and improve well-being.

We are developing a new programme, Reading Friends, which will use reading to connect weak older people. In researching the programme, we found that reading with others can help older people build social networks.

Read a book with your children, parents or grandparents over Christmas; make a new year’s resolution to start a reading group with friends, and introduce reading to your community. You could be giving them the gift they most want this year.

How long will it take you to read this article? On average, adults read about 240 words a minute, but I always take longer. I should probably feel embarrassed-but instead, I take joy in it.

I got the habit of reading for pleasure from my mum. Reading is what I do first thing in the morning and last thing at night. But it’s always taken me a long time. When I started reviewing books, I was averaging 20 pages an hour. I have improved to about 30 pages, but that’s still slow, according to some literary critics.

Book reviewers aren’t the only ones under pressure to read quickly. Pictures of “all the books I read this month” are all over social media. And reading has become a way of keeping up with the world. It is understandable that we try to make sense of events, but it can also fuel the idea that reading is a chore (苦差事), which it absolutely is not.

Why would pleasure be equal to pace? My slow reading seems to be down to a combination of slower processing speeds, and “subvocalising” — sounding out words as I read them. But especially when it comes to the latter, I wouldn’t want to train myself to go faster. It was news to me that not everyone subvocalises, because one of my favourite things about reading is hearing the language in my mind. Without subvocalising, I wouldn’t have caught the music of those words.

Recently, I finished a book of poetry. For two years, I read the poems each morning in the four minutes it took my coffee to be ready. It was a wonderful reminder that reading is never about quantity and always about the quality of time you spend with a text.

So when you read, don’t stick a number on it ---- resolve to read for pleasure, not as a chore.

Nobody says high school and college are easy. Studying is difficult, as is memorizing information for a test. Fortunately, there are books that can help to make dealing with school easier.

Unlimited Memory by Kevin Horsley

Do you have trouble remembering everything you are studying? Feel like you have too much on your plate? Unlimited Memory by Kevin Horsley may be for you. It is a bestseller on memory improvement. This book has strategies to help you learn faster while also teaching you to become more productive. Of course, having a good memory comes in handy outside of the classroom as well. Really, this is a great book for life in general.

On Course by Skip Downing

It is another book you will want to check out. In its eighth edition, the book provides you with self-assessment tools to help you identify what you need to change for academic success. It contains guided journal entries to help you with learning, responsibility, self-management, self-awareness and self-esteem.

Students Guide to Writing College Papers by Kate L. Turabian

Many students reach college and find that essay writing in college is very different from that in high school. Whether this is the case for you or you just want to improve your writing skills, you’ll want to check out Students Guide to Writing College Papers. It’s available on Kindle or in hardback or paperback forms. Right now, this one is in its fourth edition. The book covers writing your actual paper, citing sources and style. Even English majors can find a lot of helpful tips in this book.

How to Become a Straight-A Student by Carl Newport

The book will teach you different approaches and strategies to help you score better, but spend less time on studying, with a focus on studying smarter, not harder. It is available on Kindle and in audiobook (有声读物) and paperback forms.