Since half of Americans are functionally illiterate, how would they read for fun?
I’m part of this as well. I read a ton as a kid to the point my parents took away my books as punishment. Gaming definitely did (and does) take up more and more time I could be reading with. But it’s honestly been give and take. Recent games reignited a desire to read sci fi, so I got 3 books into the Dune series and read Neuromancer and some of Gibsons other short stories just this year.
I hope that we see a resurgence similar to vinyl, where physical media gets a revival. I’ll admit, i read quite a few books on my phone. Maybe I’m getting old, but having the actual books is becoming more and more appealing by the day. It might be coming back guys!
Obviously the Internet plays a big role in this as people have said, but it’s worth mentioning this was also the era where tv stopped sucking (from reality tv awfulness to a bunch of absolute banger dramas), AND where Netflix and then other streaming services became available. So there are huge competition effects.
I’ve also never bought fully into the “reading good TV bad” mindset. Leisure is leisure, especially if the article’s raised point is “identifying with literary characters”. That certainly happens in other forms of media. Even if it’s reading to learn, I watch a LOT of YouTube these days, and probably 75% of what I watch is how to and instructional. Also let’s not forget with each new form of leisure: “fast-paced music” (classical), books for the masses, magazines, tv, jazz, rock and roll, DnD, the internet, VR etc…there was always someone saying the new stuff will rot your brain while they pine for something that was maligned when it was new.
If anything the internet makes reading easier than ever. It’s not hard to download a small eBook file on your phone for free.
Reclassify doom scrolling as recreational.
I solve problems people.
Im definately part of this one. I read voraciously up until college when I had to lay off of it during the school year or it interfered with studies to much. Was still my favorite pass time till the new millenia when the internet sorta took over (work n life and junk is maybe a bit to blame given my first decent job and getting married). Last book I read was the last book robert jordan wrote in the wheel of time series. Maybe something after that but even at the point I read that I had borrowed it from a work friend I shared an office with when he finished it. So I was way slowed down and figure that was 2005 or 2006 since he picked up the book as soon as it was available in hardcover. Oh man its been 20 years since I was big on reading. Going to be half my life soon enough.
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Yeah, we can tell…
Unfortunately it’s not just a US problem. It’s more of a general issue. People ‘read’ a lot, but generally the wrong things. Like social media. And it’s causing people to lose their ‘reading muscles’ so to speak.
When I first got online in 1995, forum posts were much longer and more insightful. These days you see a lot of ‘tl;dr’ attitudes.
In my opinion, reading is a fundamental part of the human experience and important in people’s general development. Reading needs to be encouraged if possible, enforced if necessary. But there’s a lot of resistance to that.
You can blame things like YouTube for forum posts like that drying up. Why read when I can watch a video? (This does not reflect my opinion, merely the very simple thinking many people employ.)
You’re not wrong on that thought. But it’s even worse: with TikTok and YouTube Shorts, people aren’t even really seeing proper YouTube videos, just short snippets. God only knows what that’s doing to people’s attention spans, but I doubt it’s good.
I feel like I’m a dying breed: people who can enjoy long form content without needing a dopamine hit every five seconds.
can you write a tldr for this pls
Internet bad.
Judging by your president, I think 40% fewer Americans read. For fun or otherwise.
I “read” on “the internet” to “make myself miserable”
It’s a doom-page-turner!
It’s gotten really silly but I’m too invested at this point
Maybe it’s just me but I lack the free time to get meaningful progress, if I’m lucky maybe 2-3 chapters a week by the time works and housekeeping is done. It often feels unrewarding to need to look back and remember the plot by the time I get back to the book
I loathe sluggish pace reading where I lose the plot inbetween sessions.
I love binge reading a book but rarely can.
I already read a gazillion emails, documents, specs, and whatnot and the same braincells are often cooked.Similarly, I just can’t deal with physical jigsaw anymore. Same braincells used in work-related pattern recognition in troubleshooting, that I find it unsatisfying.
Try audio books. I used to not enjoy them but I’ve come around for similar reasons as you described.
Yes my issue is by the time i have time to read its nearly time to go to bed, and i find having the light on and staying in a comfortable reading position delays my sleep too much unless its something really dense, in which case i don’t end up retaining any of it.
Get yourself a kobo and both of those issues disappear. Also, you get free books if you are willing to sail the high seas, which is nice.
A decade ago I used to go through 3 books a week. Now I might read 3 a year. The world’s gone to such shit that fiction almost feels too quaint to be enjoyable. I know that’s not logical, but it’s how it feels…and it’s awful.
I discovered AO3 2 years ago and have over 400 bookmakers that I’m actively reading when they update. Don’t worry everyone I’ll binge read for the rest of you
I read AoE3, and was curious how that had nothing to do with books. And AoE2 was the best.
How do you even track over 400 completely different storylines & ships? This is an amazing feat.
I’ll be honest, I don’t know. They’re not all active stories and often times the posts are like a chapter a month but I’ve got so many I’m reading at least one new chapter a day and reading another story or 2 that I’m binging
By being interested.
Don’t ask about my 漫画 list. I have more WNs to read.
I used to burn through books, one Christmas my mum complained that she could’ve got a refund on a book I got if I hadn’t folded a page to keep track of where I was because I finished it by the time we were having dinner. Then school told me I was only allowed to read books from a certain reading level they’d given me for English class, and I had to complete an evaluation test to make sure I’d understood it before I could move up to the next level. I can barely get through 3 pages at a time now because that school program killing my love of reading.
If you’re a SciFi fan, read the expanse series. It’ll reinvigorate your love of reading again. At least, it did for me.
Unless you’re like my friend who read it with me, in which case you’ll finish it. Love it. And then mope about because you can’t find any books quite like it and is even less likely to pick up a book now because it’s not The Expanse.
They jist released the first book in a new series. Mercy of Gods.
He said today he plans to wait until it’s fully out and binge read 🙌🏼
They’ve got a novella in the same universe too!
Livesuit
You can try the Old Man’s War series, The Three-Body Problem series, Children of Time. Lots of great sci-fi out there.
There are a lot of other good options. While they are not as engaging as the Expanse (in my opinion, YMMV) tell them to check out and the Bobiverse books (starts with We Are Legion) and Murderbot Diaries (starts with All Systems Red). I found both of those very entertaining.
This is the second time I’ve seen Bobiverse mentioned. I might actually have to give it a go.
I’m realizing in my adulthood just how much school has hurt my impression of reading.
Throughout most of my life, I was so used to reading something and then having someone else explain it to me, that I never had the confidence to go off and read things on my own.
School sucks. We need a radical redesign
School also really killed my love of reading
I always had a book, sometimes several books, that I was reading on my own, and I read well above my grade level. But my high school went on a really big reading kick while I was there. Basically every class had books assigned to read at one point or another, I think even some of the math classes did. One homeroom period a week was dedicated to SSR (sustained silent reading) where you had to be reading something, you weren’t allowed to do homework, be on the computer, etc.
So they did a really great job of turning reading from something I genuinely really enjoyed to something that was a dreaded chore.
I still read occasionally, but nothing like I used to. Some of that’s being an adult with a busy schedule
But I definitely see plenty of space in my schedule where I could read and just don’t. It’s harder to get myself into the headspace where I want to read anymore.
I almost got myself back on track a few years ago, unfortunately it was just as COVID hit and I had just started reading The Road, which I was really enjoying, but with all of the shortages from supply lines being disrupted it was hitting a little too close to home.
I’m almost back on track now, but I doubt I’ll ever get back to where I was before high school murdered my love of reading.
I started working sixty hours a week to make ends meet. Hard to spare the time.
I read because it’s nice to be in a differently reality for a bit. I generally do fantasy, because the world’s immersive and it’s fun to get lost in. My buddy said he’s reading The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy, and I had it in the list, and it’s definitely not the escape that The Stormlight Archive was.
As with others here, I also do the audiobook thing. Reading is reserved for the time before bed, 15-30m or so, and audiobooks are for when you’re engaged in something that doesn’t require your full attention, like operating heavy machinery or power tools.
when you’re engaged in something that doesn’t require your full attention, like operating heavy machinery or power tools.
Jesus that sounds horrible. I mean, yeah, me too, but still…
