Jul 23, 2026 · 46 min · 8 segments
Grace and Alvina discuss a recent article in the Atlantic that bemoaned the end of reading in our society, the so-called "literacy crisis," and they also talk about Hachette Book Group's Raising…
Alvina LingHost
Grace LinHost
For today's topic, we thought we'd talk about a recent article that was in The Atlantic, um, and it was called The End of Reading Is Here by Rose Horowitch.
According to the National Endowment for the Arts, which conducts m- the most comprehensive survey of the nation's reading habits, fewer than half of all adults reported having read a book of any kind in 2022, and only 38% read a novel or short story." Um, and then the- there, there was a study, um, of 236,000 people found that the proportion of Americans who read for pleasure on any given day fell from 28% in 2004 to 16% in 2023.
I mean, it's dire that it's dropped from 28% to 16%, but, um, you know, I know that our, um, our CEO, David Shelley, has talked about how, um, and this is what we've seen in our data, is that, um, even though the number of, of people who say that they read for pleasure has declined, I think the read- the readers who do read for pleasure are so voracious that in a way they're making up for the difference.
... um, in terms of the book market, the book market is not, hasn't fallen s- uh, so drastically, I guess.
Um, so the article also says that the decline in reading cuts across age groups, gender, and education levels.
And it said, "Even the demographics that traditionally read the most, retirees, women, and college graduates, have seen a collapse."
For today's topic, we thought we'd talk about a recent article that was in The Atlantic, um, and it was called The End of Reading Is Here by Rose Horowitch.
According to the National Endowment for the Arts, which conducts m- the most comprehensive survey of the nation's reading habits, fewer than half of all adults reported having read a book of any kind in 2022, and only 38% read a novel or short story." Um, and then the- there, there was a study, um, of 236,000 people found that the proportion of Americans who read for pleasure on any given day fell from 28% in 2004 to 16% in 2023.
I mean, it's dire that it's dropped from 28% to 16%, but, um, you know, I know that our, um, our CEO, David Shelley, has talked about how, um, and this is what we've seen in our data, is that, um, even though the number of, of people who say that they read for pleasure has declined, I think the read- the readers who do read for pleasure are so voracious that in a way they're making up for the difference.
... um, in terms of the book market, the book market is not, hasn't fallen s- uh, so drastically, I guess.
Um, so the article also says that the decline in reading cuts across age groups, gender, and education levels.
And it said, "Even the demographics that traditionally read the most, retirees, women, and college graduates, have seen a collapse."
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