On reading – Maggie Astor in NYT:

‘Any reader knows the unique delight of settling down with a good book.
But over the past two decades, there has been a steady decline in Americans who read for fun, according to a study published on Wednesday.
Researchers from University College London and the University of Florida examined national data from 2003 to 2023 and found that the share of people who reported reading for pleasure on a given day fell to 16 percent in 2023 from a peak of 28 percent in 2004 — a drop of about 40 percent. It declined around 3 percent each year over those two decades.’

(…)

‘The study did not answer the question of why Americans were reading less. But the authors suggested some possible explanations, including increased use of social media and other technology, or more time spent at work because of economic pressure. Further research would be needed to confirm those theories.’

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‘The findings showed significant demographic disparities among those who read for pleasure. For example, in 2023, the most highly educated people were more than twice as likely to read as the least educated, and high-income people were about 1.5 times as likely to read as low-income people. Those disparities widened over time.’

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‘Jill Sonke — a co-author of the new paper and a director of the EpiArts Lab at the University of Florida, which studies how engagement in the arts and culture affects health — said she would like to see more awareness that reading is a resource “for our health and well-being.” “As we’re living in this really complex and really challenging time, we really need to be intentional about the ways in which we support our health,” Dr. Sonke said.’

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‘But discussing and reflecting on fiction — as opposed to just reading it — was linked to better mental health and social capabilities, including the ability to perceive nuances in interpersonal relationships, said Dr. Carney, who was not involved in the new study. Engaging with many forms of nonfiction would probably have similar benefits, he said.’

Read the article here.

The benefits, always the benefits.
I said it before, recently in a Swiss newspaper, reading will become a pastime for pariahs.

‘A pastime for a small group of people who happen to understand the perverse delights of reading what’s just tolerated, mainly because literature seems so insignificant to the powers that be. Literature should become, once again, the favorite pastime of pariahs.’

You can read the article here.