The Culture of Reading
When I was a child, I did not have a library close by or parents who used the library, so I never felt that I had endless books at my disposal. At the school library, I was only allowed to check out one book at a time each week. My family had a small bookshelf that contained a set of encyclopedias and a few novels. My siblings and I had a separate small shelf for our books. I still have some of those well-worn well-loved copies that I cherished and read over and over again during my childhood.
Both of my grandmothers were avid readers and supported my love of reading. As I got older, my grandmother started to buy books by the box from garage sales for me. I inhaled these mass market paperbacks. My other grandmother bought me a brand-new book each year for my birthday. I started to collect these books on a larger bookcase in my room and outfitted them with Dewey labels and due date cards made out of index cards. If one of my siblings wanted to read one of my books, they had to check it out from me.
As a teenager, I often used books as a barrier between me and the world. As long as I was reading, I wasn’t alone. Books were my friend when I had none.
As the internet became more ubiquitous, the fear of the book’s demise grew. Bookstores went out of business, books turned into tablets, and everyone thought libraries weren’t relevant anymore. But the book holds on with a cult following and reading is still one of America’s favorite pastimes. Holding a book in your hand, feeling its pages, connecting with the cover art are still very important parts of the reading experience to readers.
I don’t think books are going away. I don’t think that people will stop reading. Book art is real and is more important today than ever. Books have to “bookstagrammable.” They have to be sturdy so they withstand TikTok tricks. And I think what we will see with their content is that they gradually get shorter. In a world vying for our attention, with access points from our TV screens, our pockets, our bedrooms and out in nature - our attention span has shortened. I can see novellas, short stories, and novels broken up into series gaining popularity in the future. Well made, shorter reads with great cover art may be the key to boosting interest in reading books again.
