Why reading still matters

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that the art of reading is in decline. According to a major new survey by The Reading Agency, only one in two adults in Britain now reads regularly, and over a third have given up entirely. When asked why reading for pleasure has dropped, the majority cited lack of time and distraction from social media. Struggling to finish a book or focus for more than a few minutes at a time also came up for many people.

Paradoxically, hardly anyone disagrees that reading is a good thing. At least in theory. But how are we to persuade, especially the young ones, to read books when such advanced technology is available to entertain and enlighten them at their fingertips? How can we help them see that reading is different, it's worth the time, and that they should really give it a try? And should we really?

At the start of the school year, I asked my students to create a vlog debating an old classic: books versus films. With very few exceptions, the outcome was obvious almost instantly. Films won by a landslide.

Their main argument? Time. Why spend ten or fifteen hours reading a book, they asked, when you can get the same story in a two-hour film? It’s hard to argue with that logic when, after all, we’re the ones who have spent years preaching productivity. We’ve taught them to value efficiency, to optimise their time, to get the most out of every hour.

If productivity is one of the defining values of our age, then their thinking isn’t unreasonable at all. In fact, it makes perfect sense. Given the world we’ve built for them, they have every excuse not to want to read.

And this does not end in high school. As Jonathan Malesic wrote in his New York Times opinion essay, Why So Many College Students Struggle to Read:

“But I’m beginning to think students who don’t read are responding rationally to the vision of professional life our society sells them. In that vision, productivity does not depend on labor, and a paycheck has little to do with talent or effort. For decades, students have been told that college is about career readiness and little else. And the task of puzzling out an author’s argument will not prepare students to thrive in an economy that seems to run on vibes."

It isn’t my students' fault, and it isn’t our faulty willpower that leads us away from books. We have been distracted, and perhaps if we become more well-versed in the perks of reading, then we could make a more informed decision to either nurture our reading habits or put them back on the shelf.

Let's start at the beginning.

What makes reading so important and valuable that people launch campaigns and write articles about it? Surely, other media can do the same work. Stories come to life in film or TV. We have a host of podcasts and videos that cater to our learning needs, one can argue, in a much more memorable way than books do. Doesn’t film do what the book once did? And wasn’t reading once, not even existing in the human repertoire? People used to tell stories to each other, not read them. So, what does reading have to offer us? What has it offered humanity that we are so keen on preserving?

Sharpening the critical thinking

Reading was once an innovation that reshaped the human brain. Today, that cognitive legacy is under threat. Maryanne Wolf, author of Proust and the Squid, argues that the intellectual evolution made possible by reading is being undermined by the habits of our digital age.

According to Wolf, reading gave rise to a new neural circuit in the human brain: the “reading brain.” This circuit did not emerge naturally at birth but developed gradually through sustained engagement with the written language. Over time, it evolved into a complex system responsible for what Wolf calls “deep reading processes”: internalised knowledge, analogical reasoning, inference, perspective-taking, empathy, critical analysis and the generation of insight.

This reading brain is shaped by its environment. So when the environment favours juggling too much information really fast, the circuit will inevitably change to accommodate the new needs. The danger is that slower, effortful processes – such as critical analysis, inference, and empathy – begin to fade. These are precisely the skills on which meaningful learning depends.

In practical terms, skimming replaces sustained attention. We grow accustomed to extracting surface meaning while neglecting the deeper work required to follow complex arguments or wrestle with ambiguity. It may seem reasonable that students resist long-winded nineteenth-century novels, for example, yet the very struggle those texts demand trains the mind for other forms of complex reading: "wills, contracts, policy documents, or deliberately opaque referendum questions encountered in the voting booth", Wolf explains.

Neglecting our deep reading faculties might seem a harmless sign of changing times. In reality, it puts us at great risk. It exposes us to a shower of information we don’t know how to handle, and in our inability to look with a critical eye, we risk being tricked and manipulated.

And the consequences extend beyond cognition. It isn’t only our minds that get prepped by deep reading; it is our emotions, too.

Building social skills through fiction (one page at a time)

Reading is often thought of as a solitary activity. Yet research shows that it is precisely through this seemingly antisocial habit that we can develop social cognition – that is, the ability to understand other people’s thoughts and feelings. There is a catch, though. This only applies to fiction readers. The reason is simple. When we immerse ourselves in a story, we inhabit the characters’ inner world. We see how they think, we get a glimpse into their feelings, and although we know it’s just a story, our brains simulate the experience as if it were real. In other words, this allows us to explore perspectives and behaviours beyond our own, without real-world consequences. We have the chance to understand human behaviour that isn’t our own just a little better. Studies suggest that the more transported and engaged a reader feels in a novel, the more likely they are to act with kindness and compassion toward others.

A book a day keeps the doctor away

Well, perhaps a book a day is fantasy land for anyone with a job, but research shows that reading can have surprisingly serious benefits for our physical health. For one, people who read books live longer. A study conducted by the University of Michigan’s Institute of Social Research in collaboration with the National Institute on Aging found that book readers had a 20% lower risk of dying over the next twelve years compared to non-readers or those who only read newspapers or magazines.

Reading has also been praised as a powerful stress reliever. When we focus on a book, tension in our muscles and heart often eases, giving our minds a much-needed break. But the biggest benefits are for the brain. While reading isn’t a cure for dementia, studies suggest it can help reduce the severity of symptoms. It also stimulates neural pathways, supporting memory, learning, and creativity. And there’s a final perk: reading before bed has been shown to improve sleep quality, making it a simple yet effective way to wind down at the end of the day.

If books can work wonders for our bodies, they can do just as much for our minds. Research on bibliotherapy – the use of books as a therapeutic tool – shows that reading can help alleviate symptoms of mild to moderate depression, sometimes for months or even years after the intervention. There is also evidence that reading can support the rehabilitation of patients with psychosis. As researchers note, “Rehabilitation programmes focusing on group reading activities should be regarded as a valid psychosocial rehabilitation tool for psychotic patients with severe mental disability.” In other words, reading is not just a pastime; it can be a meaningful part of mental health care.

Each reader is drawn to books for different reasons. The books we choose are a mirror of the journey we’re on. We read to escape, to learn, to travel, to unlock the secrets of the universe. For me, books have been loyal companions, always there when no one else was. They keep us warm, but they also give voice to the darkest, most hidden corners of our souls. They are teachers who, without instruction, expand our sense of self and give us the words to express what otherwise remains formless in our hearts. In books, we find language to articulate who we are, what we need, and what we feel; a bridge between the unique and the shared. Reading might not have come naturally to humans, yet it has shaped us, nurtured us and made us whole in ways we never expected.

Further reading

Skim Reading Is the New Normal. The Effect on Society Is Profound — The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/25/skim-reading-new-normal-maryanne-wolf theguardian.com

Everyone Likes Reading. Why Are We So Afraid of It? — The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/21/books/review/book-bans-humanities-ai.html

Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain — Maryanne Wolf
https://www.maryannewolf.com/proust-and-the-squid Maryanne Wolf

Why Reading Books Is Still the Best Way to Learn — The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/16/opinion/read-books-learning.html

Reading Literary Fiction Improves Theory of Mind — ResearchGate
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/257349728_Reading_Literary_Fiction_Improves_Theory_of_Mind researchgate.net