Why Americans are reading less — and how to pull out of the reading slump

When was the last time you read a book or magazine, or listened to an audiobook?

Overall, Americans are reading less. A study last year from the University of Florida and University College London found the portion of people who read daily for pleasure in the U.S. fell from 28 percent in 2004 to 16 percent in 2023.

And, according to the National Endowment for the Arts, fewer than half of all adults said they read a book of any kind in 2022 — even fewer said they read a novel.

MPR News guest host Kerri Miller talks about what’s behind the decline in reading, and why some people are saying that it points to a fundamental shift that has consequences for how we entertain ourselves, learn and think.

Guests:

• Naomi Baron is professor emerita of linguistics at American University in Washington, D.C. She studies and writes about how technology shapes reading and thinking and is the author of 11 books, including “Words Onscreen: The Fate of Reading in a Digital World” and the recently published “Reader Bot: What Happens When AI Reads and Why It Matters.”

• Natalie Wexler is an education writer and author of “Beyond the Science of Reading: Connecting Literacy Instruction to the Science of Learning” and co-author of “The Knowledge Gap: The Hidden Cause of America's Broken Education System — and How to Fix It.” She writes about the decline in literacy and reading on her Substack newsletter, “Minding the Gap.”

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Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.