Less People are Reading for Fun

Researchers looked at Americans' reading habits from 2003 to 2023.

If you haven’t curled up with a good book in a while, you’re not the only one. Reading for pleasure has plummeted sharply over the past two decades, falling about 40-percent overall. That’s what a new study published in the Journal I-Science has found.

Researchers looked at Americans’ reading habits from 2003 to 2023. They found that reading for pleasure across-the-board dropped steadily about three-percent a year. There were even steeper declines in people with lower education and income levels. However, there’s one genre that seems to be bucking the trend…’romantasy’…or romantic fantasy series’ are on the rise. Also gaining in popularity, mystery books. Industry experts say book clubs and online communities have helped with that surge…and that it doesn’t matter what you read, just that you read.