I have never taken my ability to read for granted. My father was unable to read well until he was 30 years old. In fact, he didn't even pick up a book to read for pleasure until he retired. I know this because I coached him through his reading development, step by step. At first, he read bits of the newspaper – the sports section, mainly – then he moved on to sports biographies and, from there, short thrillers. Today he reads almost everything, except the most complex literary fiction.

My father is probably the reason I ended up working for Quick Reads, a book industry charity that supports wider adult readership. We aim to make it easier for those who don't read – or those who have lost confidence in their ability to pick up a book – to get back into reading. I've witnessed at every stage the journey my father has made from novice to confident reader, and have seen first hand the causes and effects of low literacy. Thankfully, I've also seen the hugely transformative effect that reading for pleasure can have.

We recently commissioned new research that revealed that as many as one in 10 adults in Britain never read, many of them because they say they don't have time; one quarter – 12 million people – have only picked up a book once in the last six months. This is a problem, an illustration of our failing as a society. We talk of digital disengagement but literary disenfranchisement is just as worrying.

A new study from the Institute for Education suggests that for many people books are, or could become, vital tools of social engagement. In an age in where "being connected" for many means a mobile connection to Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter, online social networks are simply the latest manifestation of a far older phenomenon – the group conversation. This is the idea that people talk to one another, discussing ideas, sharing opinions and evolving collective viewpoints. It's not new. In fact, it dates beyond Zuckerberg, back to Gutenberg, because the original social network started with the book.

Having ready access to books is just as important as a superfast broadband connection, and an inability or reluctance to read isolates you just as surely as a poor internet connection. Ministers should be just, if not more, concerned by this literary divide as they are by its digital equivalent.

As part of the Institute of Education's research, Dr Sam Duncan of the University of London interviewed the members of two adult reading circles in London. She found that reading together encouraged not only literary ability but also social and family bonds. One woman shared the books with her teenage daughter "and then we talk through them." Another lends the books to her neighbour and they then discussed them. Most see reading not as a solitary occupation, but as a link to their community.

The publishing industry has been taking steps to bridge the literary divide I mentioned earlier. Over the years that we have been running the programme, it has gradually become clearer that, as our research underlined, although there are many adults who can't read, there are many more who may have the technical skills but don't choose to read for pleasure.

Perhaps they don't see the point of it, but most of what I try to do is gently persuade them otherwise. I firmly believe in the transformative power of reading. It is so important for children to not only be read to by their parents but for parents to be seen by children to be reading themselves. Reading a book is not an isolated or isolating activity, but one that allows readers to share a collective experience with millions of others around the world by walking a mile in another person's shoes and by looking at things through another person's eyes.

Another of Duncan's interviewees, Tom, in his fifties, described it like this: "I learnt a lot from each book ... I have my ideas, and then when I tell them, someone else tells their ideas and I have to think again. Did I miss that, what else did I miss?"

It is so important to see one's self as part of something bigger, and to learn to form your own views and challenge them against those of others. These are vital collective experiences with the potential to transform lives. My father's experience lets me write that last sentence with genuine conviction.

Cathy Rentzenbrink is project director at Quick Reads – follow the charity on Twitter @Quick_Reads and Cathy @CathyReadsBooks

This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional. To get more articles like this direct to your inbox, sign up free to become a member of the Culture Professionals Network.