Creaking open the pages of a heavy hardback, or bending the spine of a poetry book over your knee on the train; squinting over curled-up pages by the light of a candle, or scribbling notes in the margins in the corner of a sprawling library. There are many who read as if for life; many for whom, as David Dickinson explores, reading does not just feed the mind but also the soul. Reading as if for Life takes us beyond the spirituality of sacred...