Ruby Saggers, Editor-in-Chief
January 1st officially marked the start of ‘The Year of Reading’, an initiative introduced by the Department of Education and the National Literacy Trust. This is a campaign supported by an array of sponsors, and delivered by a group of literacy sector charities with hopes of making reading pleasurable, accessible, and a hobby to introduce regardless of age or circumstance. The National Literacy Trust found that in just two decades there has been a 36% drop in eight to eighteen year olds reading in their spare time.
Queen Camilla issued a statement in regards to the fifth anniversary of The Queen’s Reading Room, in which she stated:
“Reading truly changes how we perceive, how we think and how we connect.”
In light of this, I conducted an investigation into the reading habits of those aged 18-25 to try and understand why people are no longer reading for pleasure. The vast majority of respondents come from a university setting.
Of the thirty-three respondents, 97% believe that reading is beneficial for both personal and academic development. Despite this, under half recalled finishing a full-length novel in the past week; many later expressed that they struggle to read outside of their degree, and that the majority of full-length novels read are not those personally chosen. People are finding that they do not have time to read outside of academia, thus their most recently completed novels are those taken from a module reading list.
Many have expressed that they do not feel they have the “time to read”, or that the “extensive reading lists” have negatively impacted personal reading habits. Students of English, in particular, have been affected by their reading lists. People are feeling as though the fast-paced nature of lectures, content, and analyses of books is in stark contrast to the longer formed teaching at A Level – a time in which many felt they enjoyed the subject more, and is what made many choose to continue their studies further.
The rise of social media has inevitably made an impact on marketing strategies used by publishing houses in recent years – particularly the Big 5 (Penguin, Hachette, Simon & Schuster, Pan Macmillan, and HarperCollins). Romance, Romantasy, and ‘Cozy Fiction’ dominate bookstores, and booktokers cannot get enough of it. Rather than reading for pleasure, many influencers have turned to book challenges and unattainable reading goals, making those with 9-5 work, caring responsibilities, and casual readers feel insecure about their reading habits. Five books in one year simply isn’t enough anymore, certainly not enough to be considered a reader in the eyes of booktok. With 36% of respondents searching for book content on social media and 24% in chain bookstores, it is no wonder that many express the market no longer caters to their interests.
Upon asking how people feel about current book trends on social media, the general consensus is that people are no longer finding the books they enjoy; books are “too smut and trope based”, booktok is “overwhelming”, and people aren’t sure as to whether “the right books are being promoted”. This promotion of mass-produced, trope-based, TikTok-appealing literature is a fear that intellectualism is on the decline. People are no longer turning to and promoting classical, canonical literature, and are instead leaning more towards books that are easily digestible. One respondent stated that “the general intellectual ability of readers is going down” as a result of trends.
It seems as though trending books are important in establishing a gateway to reading, but hinders those that already read and are in search of new books in genres other than romance. It is widely acknowledged that reading is a hobby in which one learns how to think critically, develop analytical skills, and expand on vocabulary.
In evaluating the responses, children and young adults are often steered away from reading for pleasure because of the pressure book trends place upon people, the monotony in books being published by major publishers, and the inability to find time to read amongst the extensive reading lists they are already subject to. To combat this, ‘The National Year of Reading’ committee state that their Go All In campaign aims towards ensuring people do not feel as though reading is a chore, and that it is “not about guilt or obligation”. On their website, they say:
“Instead of asking people to “find time to read”, Go All In brings reading to them, through their passions. It’s about showing that reading isn’t a separate world; it’s the heartbeat of culture itself.
Whatever people are into – sport, music, food, gaming, film, fashion, or creativity – we use it to draw them into reading. By starting with passions, not pressure, we can create a stronger, more connected reading culture across the UK.”
The “pressure on publishing houses and authors to publish what would be momentarily popular instead of what is original and sincere”, as claimed by a respondent to the form, will hopefully be reduced as more people with differing interests begin to pick up reading once again.
Image: Taylor_08 via Unsplash