Is Reading Dying?
It’s a question asked by plenty of writers and readers. What’s the truth? I don’t know for sure, but I have some ideas.
Is reading dying or dead? It would seem so. Every few months there’s an article online or in the newspapers about how people don’t read nearly as much as they used to, or that fewer and fewer people pick up a book. But I’d argue otherwise. I think more people are reading than ever before.
How?
Reading habits have changed, especially over the last dozen or so years. Readers might not be turning to newspapers, magazines, books and other traditional printed publications as much as they used to, but I think there has been a gigantic growth in reading online. Another growing reading population are the readers who use independent reading devices, such as the Kindle from Amazon and other such devices that will be hitting the stores soon.
Of course one could argue all this reading online isn’t the same. Readers aren’t getting to read as good a material as they did before. Readers are reading a lot of garbage. Readers aren’t learning or reading proper language when in chat rooms or texting. Maybe. Maybe all that is true, but people are still reading. And as long as they’re reading, they’re going to need writers.
If you’re a writer, like myself, you have on big thing to worry about: Competition. Yes, there are a lot more people writing nowadays, and trying to become professionals at it. The thing to remember is that the good writing will rise to the top, will flourish. Readers will want to read the good stuff. So, get to cracking, if you’re a writer. You need to work on your skills.
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I like the point you made about reading. Yes, people still read, even though they don’t read as much books… But many people read books now in .pdf format, which has the same effect if the same material is being read.
People who want to read will read, but you can’t make people read what they don’t want to.
I still think one of the greatest pleasures in life is curling up with a good book. I am quite worried about the bastardization of the English language; within about 10 years it’s very possible we’ll begin to see “txt spk” become acceptable in professional published work more and more, which to me is a real shame.
Interesting topic. I think Rynn has a good point. There are so many articles – even on Triond! – where spelling and grammar errors make the text almost unreadable.
As a former teacher, I think that the curriculum has done a great disservice to our students in the last twenty years or so by neglecting the foundational skills and replacing them with “whole language”. I don’t know if other countries have adopted this nonsense, but here in Canada the theory has taken over the language arts curriculum since I was in University 25 years ago, and its proponents apparently don’t seem to make the connection between whole language education and students who graduate without reading skills. Basically, the theory is that you just expose students to an atmosphere of books and they will learn to read the way that they learned their first language.When they write, the emphasis is to be on creativity, and “invented spelling” is encouraged so that the students’ creativity is not impeded by having to look up words in the dictionary or asking the teacher.
That being said (forgive me for leaving a comment longer than your article, I am on a rant this morning), I am amazed at how easy it is to do research with Google. It makes me a bit sad that the library may soon be a thing of the past (I am also a former librarian), but that is the destination that our society seems to be racing toward.
I think people still do want to curl up with a good book. Every time I go into my local used book store or even Barnes and Noble, etc., there’s usually a good crowd. Likewise, I know a few people who religiously carry their little hand-held device of choice around to read online. I like the idea of people reading no matter the venue. Authors definitely need to publish in all of the reading venues available now-a-days.
I am also worried about the decline of well-spoken, well-written grammar. I’m constantly trying to give stern encouragement to my teenage daughter about the importance of spelling correctly and I worry that the age of texting will create people who will be lazy in looking up the correct word spellings when they need it, say for school or work papers or resumes and job applications.
jharmon, you’re right, the well-written, professional grade author will prevail in the professional arena and make the bigger bucks!
Reading is not what it use to be, even thou society is trying to encourage reading. Here in NY the require the students to read and write a summary of 25 books per year.
A lot has to do with parents, if parents are readers and writers, then the kids will follow.
Love your article