The Death of Reading Could Change Democracy Forever

**Michael Smerconish** (0:00)
Energy, it's more than a utility. It's what powers all life's moments and possibilities for generations to come. It's what helps build brighter futures for all. So no matter how the world and its energy needs change, Southern Company's commitment to meeting those needs stays the same. They're continuously looking forward, forecasting how to support communities and deliver clean, safe, reliable, and affordable energy. And that means together, we're ready for what's next. Learn more at southerncompany.com.
Southern Company, building the future of energy.

**Michael Smerconish** (0:34)
Welcome to The Smerconish Podcast for Independent Minds. David L.

**Michael Smerconish** (0:38)
Cohen is a friend of mine. David L. Cohen is the former United States Ambassador to Canada. He's been a guest on this program. He's a brilliant individual.
He texted me this morning, emailed me actually. He emailed me this morning at 745 I remember the time for a reason that I'll reveal.
And he said to me, attaching a link, it's not exactly a mingle piece, but I really think you're going to like this. And what was he attaching for me at 745 this morning? A link to the brand new Atlantic publication, the cover story written by Rose Horowitch, title The Age of Reading is Over. And I was able to write back to him and say, David, when my newsletter comes out in five minutes, you will see that I've linked to Rose's piece and she's a guest on today's radio program because I am totally taken with what she just published. This is Rose Horowitch from the Atlantic. Congratulations. I can tell Rose a tremendous amount of effort went into this piece. The Age of Reading is Over. I should remind people who might remember that you wrote something previously that went viral. Similarly, on the subject matter, that title, The Elite College Students Who Can't Read Books. Before we get into the sum and substance of the new piece, how did you get taken with the subject of who is reading and what are they reading generally?

**Rose Horowitch** (2:12)
Well, thank you so much for having me.
It's a topic that I'm really interested in, something that I've seen as I've gone through school and hearing from professors that students are coming in, struggling to read full books. And so I was interested in it, yeah, and two years ago when I published that piece. And then I wanted to revisit it again now to kind of think about, what are the effects of this really, I think, world historical shift of people just reading so much less?

**Michael Smerconish** (2:49)
What's your favorite data point just to establish the baseline here? In the piece, you quote from, among other things, the National Endowment for the Arts, saying that fewer than half read a book of any kind in 2022 Or you also said that from the recent American Time Use Survey, the proportion who read for pleasure in 2023 was only at 16%.
Is there another metric that you point to?

**Rose Horowitch** (3:16)
Yes.
So those are two data points that I like, though they're dispiriting. I think that one thing that I found really interesting was, at this point, the National Endowment of the Arts, they found, yes, that in 2022, fewer than half of all Americans had read a book in the past year. They found that only 38% had read a novel or short story. And what was really interesting to me was that gambling is now a more popular leisure activity than reading is. Last year, 57% of Americans gambled, but we know that just a few years ago, fewer than half read a book.

**Michael Smerconish** (3:59)
It cuts across all demographics, and something else that I learned from your work is that best sellers now, that which sells the most copies, if you do want to read a book, they tend to have shorter sentences, true?

**Rose Horowitch** (4:13)
Yes, so New York Times best sellers have sentences that are about a third, one third shorter than they were a century ago.
And we're seeing that young adult fiction has become incredibly popular, even among not young adults. I spoke with a librarian who was saying that as well. So we do see that even when people do read, the books that they read are simpler and often shorter than they used to be.

**Michael Smerconish** (4:41)
And ironically, we are reading more words, right? As a society and maybe as a planet. What we're reading, however, are emails and texts, not old school.

**Rose Horowitch** (4:53)
Yes. So this was something that I found really interesting, is that a lot of times when people talk about this, they refer to it as a literacy crisis. But actually, people can read. In some ways, we're probably reading more than ever, as you say.