Sorry, I was making two confused but separate points.
The media here often get over-excited about literacy rates in this country. All part of the going to hell on a bandwagon thing. So I shoe-horned the fact that literacy rates have been far from perfect in previous generations into my response. It touches on the subject because both my parents love to read and taught me too as well. Read
and love it I mean. Dad is dyslexic, finished school at 14 and missed plenty of time in between. He read The Lord of the Rings to my brother (I was 11, read it myself but was still horribly jealous).
My secondary point, and more to the OT was what Clod said and Dana reiterated. There are literate people worldwide who don't read for pleasure. But more confusingly, there are literate people who look down on reading for pleasure. As if it's something that should be left behind when you put down crayons.
To each his own and all that (I don't like boxing and wouldn't watch a fight live without an enormous bribe) but to dismiss all the various forms of reading as pointless. I have heard the "What's the point argument" and it is so alien to me.
And to anyone reading this I guess
IS this just a group pat on the back?!