Reading

From AI Gemini:

During the mid-to-late 18th century, excessive reading—specifically the consumption of cheap prose fiction—was widely viewed across Europe as a dangerous addiction and a public health threat. Cultural commentators, physicians, and moralists framed the phenomenon as a literal disease, referring to it variously as "reading addiction" (Lesesucht), "reading fever" (Lesefieber), or "reading mania" (Lesewut).

The panic emerged due to the rapid rise of the commercial printing industry, circulating libraries, and increasing literacy rates among groups who previously had limited access to books, particularly women, young adults, and the working class.

Critics argued that compulsive reading destabilized the nervous system. Social commentators framed it similarly to physical substance abuse, describing readers who consumed books voraciously as being "intoxicated" or unable to control their appetite for sensation.