>50% Americans read Fewer than 2-3 books in 2023

[Anonymous]

Are they all students? I can't believe how few books my high schoolers have to read in a year. No more than 2 now that homework is no longer part of school.

[Anonymous]

The introduction of smartphones has destroyed a great deal of reading. Screens give off great amounts of endorphins so people prefer playing with their phones than reading.

For myself, I'm picking up reading again so I'm not on my phone. I know screens are bad so making a serious effort to read more. So far it's working focusing on Lee Child Jack Reacher. A month in I'm on my second book.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are they all students? I can't believe how few books my high schoolers have to read in a year. No more than 2 now that homework is no longer part of school.

My high schooler reads very little for school, but reads way more books than I do for pleasure, and spends less time on her phone. There’s still hope.

[Anonymous]

I'm thankful to have a kid who loves reading. He reads every night before bed. He's gone through all the Dragon Master books, Warrior Car books, and plenty of other 15-20 set books. Now he's reading Keepers of the Forgotten City and these books are massive, about 400-500 pages? He's ten.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The introduction of smartphones has destroyed a great deal of reading. Screens give off great amounts of endorphins so people prefer playing with their phones than reading.

For myself, I'm picking up reading again so I'm not on my phone. I know screens are bad so making a serious effort to read more. So far it's working focusing on Lee Child Jack Reacher. A month in I'm on my second book.

omg you are literally reading right now.

[Anonymous]

I was always very bookish, but pre-pandemic, my phone was making me lazy. I was in a book club, but would typically read maybe 8 of the 12 scheduled books ... and not much else.

I think the pandemic gave me a lot of TIME. And I realized how much I was sacrificing to my phone. I really tried to crack down and read more, and my brain is better for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Literally 1/2 of aneurysms are going to vote for trump. You think they are reading for pleasure?

😂 I prefer your Freudian slip.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm thankful to have a kid who loves reading. He reads every night before bed. He's gone through all the Dragon Master books, Warrior Car books, and plenty of other 15-20 set books. Now he's reading Keepers of the Forgotten City and these books are massive, about 400-500 pages? He's ten.

Hope that continues. My 10 year also loved to read but as a teen and now young adult, he rarely reads books for pleasure.

[Anonymous]

I don’t read books. My mom was a school librarian and I was a total bookworm through high school. Engineering undergrad broke my brain. The summer after college I lived with an English MA student and tried to read books because I was living in a house full of them. My reading speed was crazy slow after reading mostly math and engineering textbooks for years. I have ADHD and I was no longer able to hyper fixate on books to finish them.
I’m ok. I read the NYT daily and I enjoy long form journalism in the New Yorker and The Atlantic. I listen to a lot of podcasts. I no longer think it’s a personal failure that I don’t read novel length fiction unless I am reading to / with my kids.

I am an avid runner - outdoors, all seasons. It’s my escape and main form of stress relief. I do it alone and with friends - like a book club! I don’t go around bemoaning how most Americans don’t run a single mile each year. “Don’t they know what they are missing? They must be such boring, lazy people!”. I understand that other people get physical activity from other sports, walking, gardening, doing home improvement projects, etc.

[Anonymous]

Reading books is for the idle folks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hate reading. I read so slowly and my mind wonders to more interesting things in my life.
Also, so many books are so repetitive.
Please recommend an interesting book to read under 300 pages.

This. I just listened to Adam Grant’s new book on achieving your potential. It was so repetitive. So many examples were explained in later sections as if I didn’t read the prior sections. So many extended metaphors were drawn out and beat to death. It really could have been a 3-4 part series of 1 hour podcasts.

It was eye opening to me because it helped me figure out why I never finished reading any parenting books. That writing style is exceptionally annoying to me. Get to the freaking point!

[Anonymous]

I read one book. And it was when the power was out. I have a stack to read, but haven't taken a vacation at all this year. Instead I work everyday.

[Anonymous]

I don't really like books. I love reading articles from news sources like the NY Times, WaPo, Atlantic, WSJ, etc. and long form articles from other entities. I like podcasts.

*shrug*

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was always very bookish, but pre-pandemic, my phone was making me lazy. I was in a book club, but would typically read maybe 8 of the 12 scheduled books ... and not much else.

I think the pandemic gave me a lot of TIME. And I realized how much I was sacrificing to my phone. I really tried to crack down and read more, and my brain is better for it.

I’m jealous. The constant interruptions of pandemic parenting toddlers while trying to work killed my attention span — for a while I felt like I couldn’t focus on anything more complex than candy crush. I’ve been clawing back my ability to enjoy full length books in the last year or so (helps my youngest is sleeping through the night and starting to talk too).

[Anonymous]

I used to read all the time when I was younger, but I haven’t consistently read books in years. A big part of it is that I’m a lawyer, so I read all day long at work. By the end of the day, I’m tired and just want to rest my eyes. I do read Bloomberg and The NY Times every morning, but I just haven’t been able to get into books anymore.