{"id":22531,"date":"2026-07-16T14:54:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T14:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scannn.com\/is-the-age-of-reading-actually-over\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T14:54:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T14:54:11","slug":"is-the-age-of-reading-actually-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scannn.com\/lv\/is-the-age-of-reading-actually-over\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the Age of Reading Actually Over?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div data-ast-blocks-layout=\"true\" itemprop=\"text\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>A version of this story appeared in Total Annarchy, my fortnightly newsletter that helps you be a better writer, storyteller, marketer. <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/annhandley.com\/newsletter\/\"><em>Get it in your inbox<\/em><\/a><em>; you\u2019ll love it.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">***<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><noscript><img fetchpriority=\"high\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"727\" src=\"https:\/\/annhandley.com\/ah\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Is-the-Age-of-Reading-Actually-Over-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-23529 lazyload\" srcset=\"https:\/\/annhandley.com\/ah\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Is-the-Age-of-Reading-Actually-Over-1.jpg 600w, https:\/\/annhandley.com\/ah\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Is-the-Age-of-Reading-Actually-Over-1-248x300.jpg 248w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\"\/><\/noscript><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019m at the gym, where the conversation turns to what everyone is reading this summer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Normally conversation there is fragmented (kids, work schedules, how loud our thigh muscles are screaming from Bulgarian split squats). But this day we talk authors and stories. It was animated. People have\u00a0<em>Opinions.<\/em>\u00a0So someone starts a text thread, and now I have a group text with book-loving friends and a list of new recs. It\u2019s like an asynchronous book club.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Maybe you saw\u00a0<em>The Atlantic<\/em>\u2018s August cover story that cannonballed right into the middle of summer beach-reading season in the US: \u201c<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/clicks.aweber.com\/y\/ct\/?l=DocHN&amp;m=3enbY0wcDSUyQvK&amp;b=tmtHPyFdeWlM3FSDdL6M2Q\" target=\"_blank\">The End of Reading Is Here<\/a>,\u201d the magazine declared. We\u2019re past any literary \u201ccrisis\u201d; we\u2019re now at a new stage of complete disaster the magazine calls \u201cpostliterate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s not that we can\u2019t read words. (Which\u2014you\u2019re not wrong\u2014is how I initially interpreted \u201cpostliterate,\u201d too.) But what\u2019s slipping beneath the water are the deeper cognitive capacities that long-form reading builds in our brains, like Bulgarians build my quads.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We\u2019re losing sustained attention and focus: the ability to sit quietly with a book for a period of time, and then to both comprehend and internalize what we\u2019ve read.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bulgarians, by the way, are single-leg, rear-foot elevated lunges. They are actually the worst\/best\u2026 I love when I see them scrawled on the day\u2019s class whiteboard. They strengthen the larger muscles of your quads and glutes like no one\u2019s business.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>The Atlantic<\/em>\u00a0article is long (5,500 words arguing that no one reads lol). There\u2019s a LOT to unpack.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some of it we might nod vigorously along with. Like short-form video DOES train us for passive viewing. Our jumpy attention DOES bounce away when we aren\u2019t immediately dopa-delighted. And AI DOES tempt us to outsource our thinking at alarming rates. (SHOUTY-CAPS for emphasis, so you know how spot-on I believe those things are.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">BUT (here\u2019s where I stopped nodding): The conclusion is waaaay overstated. Things seem just so black and white. So c<em>ertain<\/em>, in part because the piece treats all this as something happening\u00a0<em>to<\/em>\u00a0us, when a lot of it is something we\u2019re\u00a0<em>choosing<\/em>. And (this is the part I keep coming back to), we can choose differently. A lot of us already are.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So I want to talk about 2 major points, because I think they have relevance to the future of you and me as readers, writers, creatives.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>#1: Reading \u201cis becoming a kind of niche hobby, like stamp collecting or growing orchids.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">MmMmm, okay. Let\u2019s look at the data:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Print-book sales are higher than a decade ago.<\/li>\n<li>Barnes &amp; Noble opened 60+ new stores last year.<\/li>\n<li>Nearly 400 independent bookstores opened in 2025.<\/li>\n<li>Substack subscriptions for long-form content have surged.<\/li>\n<li>Readers spend more time reading per day than they did two decades ago.<\/li>\n<li>Celebrity book clubs are a thing (Dua Lipa, Reese Witherspoon, John Mulaney, Jenna Bush Hager, and (of course) Oprah) that actually do drive sales.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>The Atlantic<\/em>\u00a0acknowledges all those bullets. But then waves them away as \u201cniche\u201d like stamp collecting and orchid-growing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There\u2019s plenty of evidence that reading is declining. There\u2019s also plenty of evidence it is deepening. Only one of those gets called data in\u00a0<em>The Atlantic<\/em>\u00a0piece; the other gets lumped in with orchid growing. (No disrespect to the orchid growers; you\u2019re great.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Said another way\u2026<\/em>\u00a0the piece acknowledges evidence that complicates the End of Reading thesis, then interprets it in the most apocalyptic, dire direction. It doesn\u2019t exactly cherry-pick\u2026 but it does move the harvesting machinery in that direction.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>#2: \u201cAmericans are probably reading more words than ever before. What has changed is what they read, and how.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Right now, you\u2019re reading this on your phone or your computer. Between online news, social feeds, captions, articles, inboxes, texts\u2026. we are reading more words than ever. Our days are literally STUFFED with words.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the piece then treats the short-form stuff as evidence of diminished\u00a0<em>capacity.<\/em>\u00a0And sure, capacities we don\u2019t practice can weaken: I took a few weeks off from the gym and wow I\u00a0<em>felt<\/em>\u00a0it. But the piece reads as if reading more non-book text proves people can no longer think deeply. Those are two different claims, and as I read it I think:\u00a0<em>Does the evidence for one automatically prove the other?<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We could look at it another way, supported in part by the article\u2019s own numbers I bulleted above. Look at that data point about how readers are spending more time with books daily than they did 20 years ago. Is that really what collapse looks like? Or is that what a\u00a0<em>more intentional and concentrated habit<\/em>\u00a0looks like? Is this a verdict\u2026 or an opportunity?<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I see long-form reading as more selective and intentional. But not \u201cover\u201d and not even niche. (I\u2019m pretty sure it\u2019s bigger than orchid growers, anyway.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So: yes to \u201cwe read differently now\u2026\u201d No to \u201c\u2026therefore books are dead.\u201d A format shift does not equal utter cognitive collapse.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Not automatically, anyway.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>* * *<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Together, those points show something more nuanced than The End of Reading:<\/strong>\u00a0Faster formats don\u2019t automatically destroy reading. They change it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But here\u2019s the deal: You and I can change, too. We can choose differently. We can choose what we want to strengthen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Maybe another way to look at the data is that some readers are being more intentional with what they read; and that writers and creatives need to up their game and create truly exceptional reading experiences.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Those of us reading aren\u2019t holdouts; we\u2019re deliberately choosing to read long-form, on purpose. We recognize what it does for us that social scrolling does not. We are choosing Bulgarian Brain Squats, because they build large muscles like no one\u2019s business.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Ah, of course,<\/em>\u00a0you say\u2026\u00a0<em>you are a writer publishing a new book in February 2027. Of course you\u2019d say that.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Fair enough. I don\u2019t want my book to enter a postliterate apocalyptic world populated by stumbling zombies locked in on TikTok (<em>Apocalyptiktok?<\/em>). I don\u2019t want any of us living there, either.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But what drives me bananas about articles like\u00a0<em>The Atlantic<\/em>\u2018s is that they predict a future they insist is so (waving spritzer toward exposed aerial roots of non-existent orchids)\u00a0<em>inevitable.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s not. The future never is.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When everything else gets faster and cheaper, the stuff that requires real-time and attention becomes more important, more valuable. It becomes a choice\u2014that (the data shows) many of us are already making.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Reading is not dead. Not dying. But we do have to consciously build the habit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Once you get into the routine of it, your muscles feel so good.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">* * *<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>At the gym<\/strong>, a woman named Elle is talking about a book she\u2019s been loving\u2014\u201ddevouring\u201d was the word she used. She\u2019s reading it on her Kindle app, because, she said, she can read it on her phone while she\u2019s standing in line at Market Basket or waiting in the carpool line for camp pickup.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So do with that what you will. But to me, Elle is like a lot of us: a little tired of the social scroll and very aware of how regularly consuming it feels like a diet of Cheez Doodles. We aren\u2019t abandoning our phones entirely. But we also know that there\u2019s another way. We deliberately choose that way when it matters. Or we\u00a0<em>can<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That conversation at the gym was truly a delight. People love recommending books. People love talking about them. And a lot of us love reading them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I left the gym feeling stronger, in every way: The larger muscles were on fire\u2014glutes, quads, AND brain.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"\/><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/annhandley.com\/is-the-age-of-reading-actually-over\/?utm_source=tldrmarketing\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A version of this story appeared in Total Annarchy, my fortnightly newsletter that helps you be a better writer, storyteller, marketer. Get it in your inbox; you\u2019ll love it. *** I\u2019m at the gym, where the conversation turns to what everyone is reading this summer. Normally conversation there is fragmented (kids, work schedules, how loud [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":22532,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[143],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scannn.com\/lv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scannn.com\/lv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scannn.com\/lv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scannn.com\/lv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scannn.com\/lv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/scannn.com\/lv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scannn.com\/lv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scannn.com\/lv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scannn.com\/lv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scannn.com\/lv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}