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2 in 5 Americans did not read a single book in 2025

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Re: 2 in 5 Americans did not read a single book in 2025

#51

Post by hellojesus »

jedberg wrote: post #28

My family is doing our part to keep the average up (despite me being part of the family). I read one book last year, and it wasn't so much a single story as a collection of short non-fiction stories. I've read various chapters of some business books. But most of my reading is shorter form content like on here or articles. But! We take our kids to the library every couple of weeks, and while we do let them check out N…

The time is there; you just have to find the willpower :)

Take the TV time and trade it for reading a page or two before turning the TV on. I think it just requires some time to adapt to generating a second wave of energy. It won't be there most days.

The alternative is coffee. I did a two month stint of sleeping only 11pm-4a last year (had a single 1.5 yr kid at the time). It was tough and ultimately my body's mechanics started to fail, so I don't recommend that. Now that I have two under 3, I strive for more sleep and therefore only a chapter per week (or a section per week on math/science textbooks).

Re: 2 in 5 Americans did not read a single book in 2025

#52

Post by AlotOfReading »

guessmyname wrote: post #18

What’s the title for? Is it about “reading” or is it about “books” ? A lot of people who say they “read books” really mean they bought one or checked it out from the library, then only dipped into it here and there, maybe a few paragraphs at a time. I haven’t read a proper book cover to cover in years, probably not since high school. But I do read a lot every single day, either for my job or because I genuinely want…

Replace "books" with "sustained reading for entertainment" and it's more clear what's meant. Reading a summary or occasional chapter isn't the same thing, nor is reading technical literature.

Note that this isn't an oblique way to frame your preferences as bad. They're simply a different kind of activity, like how writing commit messages is a different activity than writing a novel. There are different activities even within this definition of "reading". I primarily consume new books. My spouse usually re-reads old ones. One of us is better equipped for literary analysis while the other is better equipped for relatable conversations with normal people, but neither is a more "correct" way to read.

Re: 2 in 5 Americans did not read a single book in 2025

#53

Post by orwin »

raincole wrote: post #12

> 8 Books - Average number of books Americans read in 2025. However, the median American only read 2 books, showing that heavy readers significantly increase the overall average. I don't know, my reaction is "wow, Americans truly love reading," or alternatively, "they really like to boast their numbers even in anonymous surveys." Even if you only read fiction, 8 books are like 500k to 100k words. That's a lot of word…

I don't count in words but page numbers, but reader like me read ~100 page/hour (depending on the book it can be more or less). A 600 page book is 6 hours, which is roughly as long as the train ride to Paris (3 hours, both way) I take twice a month. ~24 books just to pass the time (in truth I also read non-fiction to sleep, and fiction during the weekend, so I'm probably above 40).

Re: 2 in 5 Americans did not read a single book in 2025

#54

Post by glimshe »

I still read a few books per year, but I wonder if this still matters as much as it used to. In the past, I used to read 10-20 books per year and now it's more like 3-5.

The reduction is from a lot more time spent on educational series on YouTube and other paid video sources. Is it intrinsically bad if I trade 1 book for 10 hours of instructional videos?

Re: 2 in 5 Americans did not read a single book in 2025

#55

Post by RickJWagner »

jedberg wrote: post #28

My family is doing our part to keep the average up (despite me being part of the family). I read one book last year, and it wasn't so much a single story as a collection of short non-fiction stories. I've read various chapters of some business books. But most of my reading is shorter form content like on here or articles. But! We take our kids to the library every couple of weeks, and while we do let them check out N…

Your family and mine.

I retired last year, my wife and I count reading among our hobbies. Our library offers two services that loan ebooks.

I’ll read about 8 or 10 books a month, maybe finishing half. Wifey reads at a ferocious pace, completely reading a book every day or two.

It’s nice.

Re: 2 in 5 Americans did not read a single book in 2025

#57

Post by JoblessWonder »

bitbytebane wrote: post #42
JoblessWonder wrote: post #36

Aren't 1 out of 5 Americans functionally illiterate? [1] There is no way this is correct. [1] https://www.thenationalliteracyinstitute.com/2024-2025-liter...

Yes they are very illiterate, especially in math; of which you are an excellent example.

? What's going on man? I... didn't use any math in my comment?

Re: 2 in 5 Americans did not read a single book in 2025

#58

Post by comrade1234 »

Out of curiosity I looked at my ios books app to see how many I read and it says I only read one book in 2025 and one book in 2026. This is completely wrong - I've read 4 books since Jan 1 and last year maybe 10 to 15 books (mostly trashy sci-fi and fantasy)

When I looked closer in the app it's because all of my books are 99% finished because I didn't click in every page until the end. Annoying.

I use my garmin connect app to track exercise, blood pressure, water consumption, etc. it would be cool to have something similar for the mind.

Re: 2 in 5 Americans did not read a single book in 2025

#60

Post by comrade1234 »

yesfitz wrote: post #46

The survey this is based on[1] counts listening to audiobooks as "reading", which can only inflate the numbers. I have nothing against audiobooks, but they are not the same as reading. It is a passive consumption of the content. You can daydream or lose focus and the story keeps rolling on. If you lose focus while reading, the story stops. You may find that you've "read" a few sentences, but it's quickly self-correct…

I used to think the same way as you about audiobooks but this year I had three weeks where I wasn't supposed to read a screen after eye surgery and so I tried some audiobooks. It took a few days but eventually I got to the point where it was indistinguishable from reading - where I could picture in my mind everything happening.

This is quite different from tv and film where you're just watching and not using your mind.

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