Lust att läsa eller att låta bli?

Do you feel like reading or do you not want to read? Ideas about reading enjoyment in a project which promotes reading at Swedish preschools. The article discusses how ideas of reading enjoyment affect the practical and pedagogical practice through a project to promote reading at four Swedish preschools. Based on interviews and observations collected over a three-year period we highlight three areas where ideas about reading enjoyment are visualized in the teaching of literature: literature, play, and learning through reading enjoyment. The study shows that access to literature alone does not necessarily lead to children’s voluntary reading unless preschool teachers also take an active initiative. Likewise, play can be a pleasurable way to start reading if the adults provide some guidance. The study also notices a discrepancy between preschool teachers’ ideas of reading enjoyment and learning, which may result in the opting out of voluntary reading unless it is explicitly supported in the policy documents. Measures in the form of pedagogical education, and goals concerning literary didactics therein are proposed.