I don’t have a book review today, rather some thoughts on trends I’ve noticed in book & reading culture. (If this sounds terribly dull, you won’t hurt my feelings by skipping this newsletter.) Lately, I’ve noticed discussion, both in person and online, about how no one reads anymore, coupled with talk about reading as a way to cultivate focus because we are addicted to our phones.

I find some of this discourse interesting and some of it quite boring. For example, in January an article from The Atlantic titled “Reading is a Vice” was trending. I did not read this article and, in general, I refuse to pay for The Atlantic to talk down to me. My sense is that the author is calling for recreational reading to be treated more like a vice than a virtue, so that people see reading as fun. I guess the author sees reading as essential for democracy, so we gotta make it alluring? I suppose I mostly agree, but discourse of “no one in America reads anymore” – I find this boring. When I was growing up in the 90s, I remember adults lamenting that kids don’t read anymore and watch too much TV. This current discourse feels like an iteration of an old, tired “kids these days” argument.

I think there is something, however, to the argument that reading offers a pleasurable antidote to our screen addictions. I mostly read print books because I have to sit and focus. I can’t look at my phone when I’m reading a print book. It’s an exercise in patience and attention that I find enjoyable. It doesn’t feel like a chore to me, like, say, meditation. (For the record, I get a lot of value from meditation, and I enjoy listening to audiobooks on my phone for lighter fare. We all contain contradictions!)

I’ve been attending the Silent Book Club in Austin for about a year now, and I’ve had many great conversations with strangers about their reading habits. This trend of reading to cultivate focus has come up — people come to the Silent Book Club precisely because they’re trying to build a reading habit, spend less time on their phones, and create bookish community.

In addition, I’ve noticed a trend of young men reading classic literature. This is fascinating to me! I have a theory that schools are not teaching classic novels at the middle and high school levels, instead selecting “easier,” contemporary books for required reading. Thus, Gen Z has less exposure to the classics. I’ve met three young men at the Silent Book Club who intentionally read classics. One told me that he was a computer science major and missed out on a lot books because his education was so STEM-focused.

This may point to a wider trend. I recently started following model-turned-book influencer Chris Fizer, who reads and reviews novels like The Brothers Karamazov and The Count of Monte Cristo. His book review videos have millions of views on Instagram, so I imagine his footprint is even larger on TikTok. (I’m intentionally not on TikTok. I had to draw the line somewhere with social media.) The New York Times recently had a piece on readers picking up Wuthering Heights ahead of the film release, and they quoted a 23-year-old man who is reading 19th century novels “as part of a bid to claw back his attention span”.

I’m tickled by these young men finding joy in classic literature. I’m also grateful for my education, both in high school when the classics were required and in college as an English major when I chose to read and study them. These days, though, I don’t really care why or what people are reading or how they read (print vs. ebook vs. audio). Yes, I choose print books because they help me get the hell off my phone.

But what I find infinitely more valuable, both at Silent Book Club meetings and in response to this newsletter, are in-person conversations about books. And I’m not ashamed to admit that I follow trends myself. I’m currently rereading my beat-up old Barnes & Noble Classics edition of Wuthering Heights. I can’t wait to talk to you about the book and the movie offline.