Every January, thousands of readers log on to Goodreads, Instagram or TikTok and make the same declaration: this is the year I read 50 books. Or 75. Or 100. Screenshots of spreadsheets circulate, templates for tracking pages and percentages are downloaded, friends publicly pledge to “do better” than they did last year.
Why? They aren't, can't be, reading for pleasure. Not if this is what's driving them.
The appeal is obvious: in a distracted age, reading can easily become crowded out by work, screens and fatigue. Literacy rates in the UK are stagnating: in 2024, around 50% of UK adults read regularly for pleasure, down from 58% in 2015.
What they are describing doesn't seem too pleasurable to me. I love Goodreads for its options to recommend books, and see what others are reading, not for any competitive reducing of reading to a numbers game!
As the UK launches its National Year of Reading, a steady drumbeat of commentary has framed the decline of book culture as a civilisational crisis. Columnists have painted lurid pictures of a post-literate society, in which the shrinking cultural centrality of books represents a slow unravelling of the habits that once underpinned modern public life. In this context, reading targets promise discipline and a sense of progress.
The death of great authors like the sadly missed Dan Simmons at the weekend isn’t helping!
But do yearly reading goals actually help us read better, or do they risk hollowing out the very activity they claim to protect?
The latter, I fear. What say you, Reader?
Spot on! It reminds me of being lectured by my 1st form English teacher for not reading enough on the evidence of my nearly empty ‘Library Notebook’; we were supposed to log all the details and a page-long summary of every book we read but I seldom bothered because a) it would have meant writing up to eight or nine summaries a week on top of other homework and b) it seemed ridiculous to document something so fundamental - like being required to record a lengthy description of every meal.
ReplyDeleteThere’s also the issue of quality over quantity, especially now that AI seems to be getting in on the act - there’s a horrible symmetry in people reading through numerous identikit computer synthesised thrillers or romances simply in order to clock up numbers on social media.
I read a lot of books and I have since my school days. Some days I can read an entire book in one sitting and others I struggle to read 50 pages. Depends on the author. Committing to read 100 books is reading a book every 3.5 days. Who would do that?
ReplyDeleteI encourage the kids to read books as well although they like different books than I do. I've a good imagination so I like a book that builds on that doesn't drone on about scenes and many critics don't think that authors that do that are any good. I find many classics to be boring and to long, although it is not a target.
I've just looked on Amazon and I do buy books at supermarkets and book shops as well. I read about 40 to 50 a year.
Trying to persuade my 10 year old grandson to.put down his Xbox and read a book seemed to fall on deaf ears, till I saw a "Just William" book, by Richmal Crompton, in a charity shop. Having read these books when I was his age, bought it (50 pence), and gave it to him. He now wants me, or his Mum, to try and find more books in the series. Yes, they are of an earlier age, but they stimulate the imagination of children more than modern stories of super heroes, or aliens. My next quest is stories of Jennings and Derbyshire, but they may be a bit posh for his tastes.
ReplyDeletePenseivat
In 2017 I cleared our old family home after my mother's passing on. Amongst the many books taken away were complete(ish) sets of Just William, Jennings and Biggles books. Had the timing been mre fortuitous I would have gladly boxed and dispatched the lot to you. My I suggest you try Hammond Innes on the lad? I remember being spellbound by his stories at about his age.
DeleteI can't help that a lot of modern books are woke garbage that has been proof-read by sensitivity readers
ReplyDeleteI'm currently reading a series of detective stories where the detective is always cadging a fag off his suspects. Probably can't write that now
Andy5759, Many thanks for this. Will have a look.
ReplyDeletePenseivat