Two Stories About Reading — One Sad, One Hopeful
The Guardian recently published a story about a thoroughly depressing study. Its main finding was that the number of Americans who read for pleasure has decreased by 40%.
Benjamin Lee
Between 2003 and 2023, apparently it's fallen off about 3% a year. Perhaps even more depressingly it estimates that the literacy rate in the U.S. is around 79%, which ranks us 36th in the world.
Perhaps most depressingly is there isn't really anything about a potential way forward. No proposed solutions. No planned actions.
But consider this recent story from The New York Times about a similar issue in Denmark. A 2021 study showed fourth graders had dropped in reading proficiency, and in conjunction with broader concerns about the country's reading future, the country is dropping its 25% value-added tax on books.
I have no idea if such a move will help in Denmark, but I have to tip my cap at the effort to address the problem. It was nearly a year ago when I shared The Atlantic's story about the elite college students who couldn't read books, so it's not like this is a small problem. Having just finished a book from the library, I'm feeling particularly energized about my reading life right now, and it's terribly sad to me that a large number of my fellow citizens aren't aware of just how good that can feel, how exciting it can be to rush through a book because you're in its grips, how satisfying it can be to turn that last page, and how anticipatory it can be to select the next book to read.
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