I got this link in my email today. while I didn't take part in this survey, I thought it might interest others.
Two trends that showed up in the study were that older people read more than younger people while higher educated people also read more than lower educated people.
Personally, while I read fewer books a year than I did, say a half a century ago. why? Lifestyles. Even though I was a high school dropout, books were the perfect entertainment for me. I didn't have cable TV, and working nights, I didn't come home and turn on the TV. Instead, I grabbed a book and started reading it. Comic stip collections were an easy read, but if I found a science fiction book, I put the world behind me and didn't land back in reality until a hundred or more pages were read.
Today, with the internet, it distracts from a lot of reading, but it does shape what I read. I currently read about 15 books a year. that means I read more than 88% of the population.
What are your reading habits like these days?
by Swiggy1957
24 Comments
I’d settle for proof they’ve read the Constitution.
I’d assume this isn’t strictly an American thing.
I try to get a book in every 1-2 weeks now
I “read” more than I ever have because audiobooks are free reading time at work.
This has also led to more ebooks/physical books in the last few years than since high school because it reignited my passion for books generally. It might be a couple hundred audiobooks a year to a few dozen in visual formats, but it’s making up for a significant drought through/after college.
I’m less concerned with quantity and more concerned with quality. The competitive reading trend “I’m going to read 150 books this year but I won’t remember anything about them in 6 months if you ask me” is very silly to me. So I don’t worry so much about the number of books but do focus on the highest quality books I can.
That being said, I do have a rough page count in mind (about 22,000 to 25,000 pages or so) which allows me to worry less about the number of completed books and frees me up to read “bigger” books that I might be scared away from because of trying to hit a certain number of completed books.
I think people should set higher goals, but if everyone around me read about a book a month, I’d be thrilled. I’m sure that’s not happening currently.
IDK if I read more but my book club is going well so I’m reading a lot of different books lately.
Given who our president is, not remotely shocking. Fucking idiots, we all are.
HTF does someone read 50+ books each year lol. Must be slim books or nothing else to do.
2025 was the first year in ages I read >40 (maybe >50) books that were new to me. Trying not to perseverate on the news was a big reason.
I don’t know that I could sustain that, though. I was lucky to discover a prolific author I liked, as well as go down several rabbit holes with memoir topics.
Unfortunately most people who read books would have a snark comment like “and it shows” as if reading books make you superior to those who do not. Sad when people think something simple as reading books more than the average person makes you special. I digress, it might have to do with the lack of time to oneself to simply sit down and read without interruption.
I’m glad they included audiobooks, even though that does make the numbers feel a little more abysmal. Still, with just over 2200 participants, I’m a little skeptical that it’s truly representative. I’d be interested to see data from libraries, for example.
Lifestyle and life impact my reading habits. I’m working and 50 and as time goes, I read less. Why? Because as I’ve progressed through my career, my job demands more time. And, 90% of what I do is read, edit, and write correspondence. So, at the end of the day, I just can’t read for myself anymore.
However, the exception is that I do read about 20 to 30 minutes a day to my daughter… Books that are ahead of her reading level, and despite being teen or ya, stimulating enough to keep me engaged.
But, I do wish I had the energy to read more for myself. I do audio books on occasion, so that’s nice.
Most Americans have an 6th grade reading level.
“Two trends that showed up in the study were that older people read more than younger people while higher educated people also read more than lower educated people.”
How incredibly pointless for someone to waste their time researching the bleeding obvious 😀
Very depressing poll though…they were even generous enough to include audiobooks and still 40% of the population didn’t get through one? That’s mad.
I love the Pareto number: 19% read 82% of all books read.
No doubt Trump is President.
I’m not gonna lie dawg I fell off hard. A few months ago, I was in my bag I finished multiple books and had a big interest in fantasy. Then I fell off the horse and coincidentally my attention span turned into a freshly smoked turkey and although I’m interested in multiple books and have unlimited access to read anything anytime. I struggle to actually read it because YouTube shorts and reddit called my name instead. 😭 Curse the age of technology (not really)
At one time, I was a big TV viewer. That’s tailed off dramatically. I also don’t really play video games much anymore. I still watch a lot of movies though.
I waste a certain amount of time on the internet, but I think significantly less than many other people. My social media interests are relatively specialized.
The result is that I now read a **lot** more than I used to. I hit a new personal record last year: 170 books.
I used to be a voracious reader, but I was badly out of the habit of reading for a long time, so the three I read last year was 100% more than 2024 or basically back to like… college in 2014. But I’ve gotten back into the habit. I’m not trying to hold myself to a book count or anything just more than zero.
My only “rule” is that I only buy two books at a time, and have to finish both before buying new ones. I haven’t had one that ended up DNF yet, but my thought is those won’t count against me for buying new ones. That would be silly. Its more an ADHD exuberance throttle than anything else. A huge stack of brand new books would cripple me because it would feel like an unfinished task instead of a hobby.
Shocker.
I used to blow through books by reading on my commute around the city, but then I moved close to work and most of my social commitments. So, now I do more reading at home. I’ll try to get in at least a half hour after dinner, or an hour on the weekend. It adds up – I’m on book 4 for 2026, and may need to increase my Goodreads goal of 30.
True, I had them read to me like a good Vorin man
I’ve been reading about 100 pages a day
I used to love reading. I don’t have the emotional bandwidth for it since Trump took office