If the act of reading is nearing its end, people like these in London's Greenwich Park in May did not get the memo.Kevin Coombs/Reuters
I took a vacation and read a horror story in a magazine. Well, it was on my phone, but published by a magazine. This is a relevant clarification.
The Atlantic’s “The End of Reading is Here” argued that, as per the subtitle, “the age of reading might be a short anomaly in human history.”
Its author, Rose Horowitch, deftly lays out America’s literary crisis, at a time when gambling is a more common leisure activity than reading a book. When people consume news from often-suspect sources: Only 10 per cent of Americans in their 20s read a newspaper daily. It is this postliterate world that allows a Donald Trump to get elected. (Speaking of gambling, heh.)
It’s not just that the President is postliterate; that’s obvious. It’s that the electorate is postliterate – relying on TikTok and Joe Rogan for information over actual journalism. Mr. Trump’s mode of communicating (that’s one way to put it) exploits our distracted age. This is how you get today’s dumbed-down, polarized world on fire.
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Going through Ms. Horowitch’s essay, you’re in a serious read-it-and-weep situation long before she even gets to generative AI, which, she posits, “is the first tool to threaten the existence of writing.” And adds: “What’s at risk is nothing less than the ability to think for oneself.”
If the end of reading is here, someone forgot to tell the 660 people who packed the Vancouver Playhouse Monday night to hear Ann Patchett speak about her new novel, Whistler (excellent).
Ann Patchett, author of the new novel Whistler, at her bookstore in Nashville.George Walker Iv/The Associated Press
Even before the talk, audience members chattered in the lobby, comparing book recommendations and jotting down suggestions in their Notes app. Sure, we were a subset of flowy-pant- and sensible-sandal-wearing readers, but we weren’t all 50-plus or female – although those demographics did dominate. Fine.
When asked about it onstage, Ms. Patchett – a prolific author of novels and essays who also owns a Nashville bookstore – responded to the premise of the Atlantic piece (which she had not yet read) and other pronouncements like it with a more positive perspective. “To forecast the end of civilization is so easy, it is low-hanging fruit.” She told of people showing up at writers’ festivals, at her bookstore, eager readers in every age group.
Yes, the next generation reads far less than today’s adults did as kids. Yes, fewer than half of all U.S. adults reported having read a book of any kind in 2022.
But the end of reading?
The situation in Canada may be different, based on data from BookNet Canada, whose most recent leisure and reading study shows 79 per cent of Canadians read a book in 2025 and half of us spent time reading (or listening to) a book at least once a week.
The study also shows the top driver of literary discovery is word-of-mouth. So I will borrow a plea from Ms. Patchett: Tell others about things you’ve read that you love. Your friend group, your Instagram followers. Buy beloved books as gifts.
Richard Drew/The Associated Press
Like Ms. Horowitch, I have noticed my own habits changing – reaching for the phone at night instead of my bedside book pile. I’ve also noticed that some of my favourite reads this year have been slimmer – I read Whistler over a weekend, Ben Lerner’s sublime Transcription (on point, incidentally) in a day.
But taking time off from my job and the world, I largely avoided the phone and indulged in longer, deeply satisfying books. (London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe – a must-read.)
Reader, it was glorious.
It’s not just a joy to read, but essential. As Canadian author Kim Echlin argues in Tell Others: Storytelling for a World in Turmoil: “When we are part of reimagining the world, as readers and writers, we open ourselves to observe what is happening under our watch and to imagine new ways forward.”
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It would be glib to say that those of you reading this column in this newspaper (or on your device) are proof itself that the end of reading is not here. Not quite. As Ms. Horowitch notes, we readers of such pieces are part of a dwindling subculture of people “who derive cultural understanding and intellectual connection from the written word.”
Nor do I intend this as some sort of sanctimonious pearl-clutch in response to Ms. Horowitch’s argument.
I merely want to share the joy.
There is nothing like the feeling of reading a book you can’t wait to get back to. You power through it, then slow down as the pages behind your bookmark thin, because you want the experience to never end. If you’ve given this pleasure up, I urge you to give it another shot.