Sarah J. Maas, Freida McFadden and Emily Henry –– can these popular authors join forces and save the day against a dangerous decline in reading for enjoyment?
Daily reading for pleasure has plummeted 40% over the past 20 years, according to a new study published Wednesday in the journal iScience.
The report, which surveyed people in the United States about their reading habits between 2003 and 2023, showed that the decline has been sustained over time –– about 3% a year.
African Americans, people with lower income or educational levels, and people in rural areas experienced the steepest decline, which highlights a growing disparity in reading access, according to the study.
Reading for enjoyment is important for many reasons, including critical thinking and empathy development, but not all is lost. Experts say tools are in place for reading to make a comeback — and romance, fantasy and mystery are leading the way.
The overall trends in reading for pleasure may be on the decline, but there have been successes in the wild popularity of series, book clubs and conversations about books on social media.
Genre books –– romance, fantasy and mystery in particular –– have had a surge in popularity, a trend that highlights two key strategies for more reading: finding what you like and creating community, said Cybil Wallace, who formerly worked at CNN and is now managing editor at Goodreads, a website where readers track their reading and share recommendations with others.
Maybe you like a cozy romance novel, a thick history book, a business read or high literature — whatever you enjoy reading can offer benefit, she said.
In many ways, reading is a “workout for the brain,” said Teresa Cremin, professor of education and codirector of the Centre for Literacy and Social Justice at The Open University in the United Kingdom.
Reading can require deep critical and creative thinking as well as nurture cognitive patience, or sustained concentration, she added. Engaging in alternate worlds, histories, cultures and experiences through fictional characters can be helpful in developing compassion and empathy, she added.
While leisure reading can be cognitively strengthening, it also is helpful for relaxation and stress reduction, said study coauthor Dr. Jill Sonke, who is currently serving as a US Cultural Policy senior fellow at Stanford University. She is codirector of the EpiArts Lab, a National Endowment for the Arts Research Lab at the University of Florida in partnership with University College London.
This benefit is especially key in the digital age — people have a lot of stress but less leisure time, added Sonke, who is also director of research initiatives and research professor at the UF Center for Arts in Medicine.
“Low-hanging fruit around relaxation is really important today,” Sonke said.
The accessibility of books makes them a useful way to engage in arts and culture –– libraries, bookstores and online resources are often more available than galleries and theaters, she added.
Reading “affords the opportunity to step away from daily life pressures, relax and immerse oneself,” Cremin said.
A helpful step to raising readers is being a reader yourself, according to Cremin.
“When adults position themselves as fellow readers, my own research indicates that they model the value and satisfaction they find in their own literate lives and induct young people into such pleasures,” she said.
Fortunately, the study did not show a steep decline in reading to children –– but families still aren’t reading together enough, Sonke said.
Of the more than 236,000 people in the study, 20% had children at home younger than age 9, she said — but only 2% are reading with children.
“We know that for children, being read to is linked to preparation for reading, preparation for early education, and it’s also linked to reading attainment later on,” Sonke said. “Of course, those educational implications are really significant, and I think they become even more significant as we enter this era of AI.”
But learning isn’t the only reason why reading is crucial for kids.
“My motivation for reading to my kids was certainly about educational attainment and readiness, but it was really an important bonding time in our family, and we also know that bonding with children is really important to their well-being,” she added.
Children enjoying reading is vital for addressing social inequities, Cremin said. Daily reading was 49% less prevalent in African Americans than White by 2023, the new study found.
While it is important for the education system to increase access to reading in schools, through libraries and other structural changes, there are also things your family can implement at home, Cremin said.
Go ahead and get the audiobook or e-book if it is more accessible, and set aside phone-free time so family or friends can gather together and read aloud or beside one another, she said.
If you haven’t found your genre yet, try looking at the movies, shows or other cultural elements you enjoy and find books that fit those interests, Wallace said.
For whatever you enjoy, you are likely to find a community around it, which is essential for building a reading habit. Whether you gather with a group of friends, engage with other readers on a social media page or follow a podcast, find the people who you can connect with through books, Wallace added.
“Reading itself is very solitary: You’re sitting alone for hours on end with a book,” she said. “But I think the process of finding books, of sharing books, of talking about books, is really another side of it.”
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