The End of Reading? Not in My House
How I started reading books again... and you can too
Rose Horowitch's cover story in The Atlantic this month, "The End of Reading," is horribly depressing. It won't surprise many people that Americans are reading fewer books, but she does an excellent job exploring what we lose as we move closer to becoming a "postliterate" society. For those of us who care about education, this trend represents a major headwind. As Horowitch writes, we're "losing the higher-order abilities of comprehension and synthesis."
I felt this in myself and have been on a personal journey to reclaim my time. I’m sharing it here in case it inspires anyone else…
As a kid, I was an avid reader. My parents left my brother and me home alone a lot, so I spent hours devouring almost every book we owned. I tore through The Hardy Boys, Roald Dahl, and C.S. Lewis, read all the John Grisham novels, even picked up a parenting book out of curiosity, and once attempted the Bible (I didn't get very far). When school held a competition for most books read, I finished second in my class.
But then, I slowly fell out of the habit. In high school and college, I read what I had to for school but not much else, only tucking into a few books when I got really bored in the summers.
In adulthood, with a wife, kids, and a full-time job where I read a lot of research and policy papers, tweets, and news articles, I found myself barely reading whole books anymore. But I began to feel like I was gorging on the reading equivalent of snacks or candy, so in 2018 I set a modest goal of reading at least one book per month. I surpassed that target and kept going. Since the beginning of 2021, I’ve averaged about a book a week.1 (Because I was/am naturally drawn to nonfiction, mostly written by white men, I now have diversity goals as well.) To keep myself honest, I use a simple Google Sheet where I log every book I finish.
I’m sharing this personal anecdote in case there’s anyone else out there who wants to rediscover a lost love of reading. It’s doable! I find that tracking my book reading is another way to manage my media diet, and now I can’t get to sleep at night without reading for at least 10-20 minutes. I prefer to read physical books, and I am a regular user of our local public library, but these are personal preferences and I’d encourage others to find what works for them.
Like any other habit, I find that the more I read, the more I want to read. The country seems to be moving in the opposite direction, but I've learned that habits can change. Mine did. If you've drifted away from books over the years, it might be worth trying to find your way back.
Reading List
Kate Taylor: Algebra-for-all backfires in Cambridge, MA
Will Austin: Only 140 Massachusetts teachers were deemed to be unsatisfactory last year
Colyn Ritter: When scrutinizing private school choice spending, ask whether public schools also spend money on that thing
My favorites so far this year: John and Paul, Katabasis, The Man Who Died Seven Times, and I, Claudius.
This is a great post! Thanks for sharing about your reading life.
I was rather surprised that Horowitch's sensationalistic article, which merely parrots and echoes decades-old scaremongering about a supposed decline in literacy and critical thinking skills, was given pride of place as The Atlantic's August issue print cover story. Horowitch says little that is new and that I haven't heard since childhood, when television became pervasive and ostensibly was causing the end of critical intelligence. That was over 60 years ago. But it earned her celebrity status, so, from Horowitch's point of view, I guess the article is "significant." I don't disagree that people who read serious books and think critically make better citizens and political actors in democracy than people who do not, but that has ALWAYS BEEN THE CASE. This article served as a vehicle for the aggrandizement of one Rose Horowitch, an ambitious young woman looking to make a name for herself (more power to her) and had little other use.