Sarah J. Mars, Freida McFadden, Emily Henry – can these popular writers join forces to save a day against dangerous decline for fun?
Reading for daily reading has plummeted 40% over the past 20 years, according to a new study published Wednesday in the Journal Iscience.
The report, which surveyed US people on reading habits between 2003 and 2023, showed that decline of about 3% per year is maintained.
Research shows that African Americans, people at low-income or education levels, and rural people experienced the most sharp declines.
Reading for fun is important for many reasons, including critical thinking and developing empathy, but not everything is lost. Experts say they have the tools in place to make a comeback for reading – and romance, fantasy and mystery lead.
The overall trend of reading for pleasure may be declining, but the wild popularity of conversations about series, book clubs and social media has been successful.
Genre books – especially romance, fantasy, mystery – are gaining popularity. This tends to highlight two important strategies for more reading. I used to work On CNN, I currently manage the editor for Goodreads, a website where readers track readings and share recommendations with others.
Maybe you like cozy romance novels, thick history books, business readings, or high literature.
Teresa Kremin, professor of education and community member at the Centre for Literacy and Social Justice at the UK Open University, said reading in many ways is “training for the brain.”
Reading requires deep critical and creative thinking, as well as developing cognitive patience or sustained concentration, she added. Engaging in alternative worlds, history, cultures and experiences through fictional characters, she added, could help develop compassion and empathy.
Leisure readings can be cognitively reinforced, but they also help with relaxation and stress reduction, said Jill Sonke, PhD, a study co-author who serves as a senior fellow in American Cultural Policy at Stanford University. She is a partner of Epiarts Lab, the National Fund for the Arts Laboratory at the University of Florida, a partnership at the University of Florida University of London.
This advantage is particularly important in the digital age – People are under a lot of stress, but they have less leisure time, Sonke added. He is also a research initiative and research professor at UF Arts for Arts Medicine.
“The low fruits around relaxation today are really important,” Sonke said.
Book accessibility makes it a convenient way to engage in art and culture. Library, bookstores and online resources are more available than galleries and theatres, she added.
“It gives you the opportunity to relax and immerse yourself,” Kremin said.
According to Kremin, a useful step to fostering readers is to be your own reader.
“When adults position themselves as fellow readers, my own research shows that they model the values and satisfaction they find in their literal lives and lead young people to such joy,” she said.
Luckily, the study showed no sharp decline in reading for children – but families haven’t read enough together yet, Sonke said.
Of the over 236,000 people in the study, 20% said they had children in homes under the age of nine, but only 2% read with their children.
“We know that for children, reading is linked to reading preparation, early education preparation, and later to achieving reading,” Sonke said. “Of course, these educational meanings are really important and I think they’ll become even more important as we enter this age of AI.”
However, learning is not the only reason why reading is important for children.
“My motivation for reading my children was certainly about educational reach and preparation, but it was a truly important bonding time for our family. I also know that bonding with our children is really important to their well-being,” she added.
Children who enjoy reading are essential to addressing social inequality, Kremin said. A new study found that African Americans read 49% less daily than white people.
While it is important for education systems to increase access to reading in schools through libraries and other structural changes, it can sometimes be implemented by families at home, Kremin said.
If it’s more accessible, get audiobooks and e-books so that family and friends can come together and read aloud, she said.
If you haven’t found a genre yet, try looking at a movie, a show, or other cultural elements you enjoy and find a book that suits those interests, Wallace said.
Whatever you enjoy, you may find a community around it. This is essential for building reading habits. Whether you gather with a group of friends, interact with other readers on social media pages, or follow the podcast, find people you can connect with through the book, Wallace added.
“Reading itself is very lonely. You’ve been sitting alone for hours in a book,” she said. “But I think the process of finding books, sharing books, talking about books is really another aspect of that.”
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