### Clue: Even reading up about desert shows recklessness (8)
### Answer: TEMERITY 
 ### Explanation: Definition: recklessness
 **Reversal of**(… reading up, in a down clue) YET(even/still, used to emphasise an increase, as in "he behaved yet more rowdily") **containing**(about) MERIT(desert/what one deserves).