Essays

Can Making Reading Cool Again Combat Illiteracy?

As online book culture thrives, Book influencer Chinelo questions whether a rise in reading enthusiasm can translate to real progress in literacy.

Chinelo is a California-based book influencer who has been featured in Apartment Therapy and has written for We Need Diverse Books. You can find her on Instagram at @interestedinblackbooks.

The headlines of late regarding literacy in the United States are conflicting, to say the least. 

On one hand, we’re being told that no one can read a book anymore. Allegedly. 

In October 2024, Rose Horowitch wrote an article titled “The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books” for The Atlantic. One professor recalls that she used to assign 200 pages a week at UC Berkeley, but “now assigns less than half of that.” Another professor discusses his shift to assigning shorter books because “One has to adjust to the times.” The article notes that “the overall pool of people who read books for pleasure has shrunk over the past two decades.” 

Earlier this year, in an article titled “American Children’s Reading Skills Reach New Lows” for the New York Times, Dana Goldstein reported that, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, 33 percent of eighth graders in 2024 had “below basic” reading skills — the lowest in the exam’s history. Some of the blame, one researcher tells the New York Times, belongs to “screen time, cellphones and social media.” 

On the other hand, books have never been cooler. Allegedly. 

If people are spending time on their cellphones, they’ll find it hard to avoid online book communities like BookTok and Bookstagram (and before that, Booktube). 

People are taking note of the cultural cachet that reading — or at least being seen with a book — can give you. In 2024, a slew of articles from The Cut (“Why Does Every Famous Woman Have a Book Club Now?”) to Esquire (“How Celebrity Book Clubs Actually Work“) talked about the rise of the celebrity book club, which usually occurs by way of a separate account on Instagram where celebrities post books and interview authors. Vogue reports that “Gen Z reads more books than any other US generation, with almost 70 per cent preferring print, versus 42 per cent who are e-book advocates,” citing Pew Research. And Bustle claims that reading is the thirstiest thing a man can do if he wants to get a woman’s attention. 

To close out last year, in December 2024, Sydney Gore wrote an article for Architectural Digest titled “Book Clubs, Book Bars, and BookTok: Examining Why Everyone Suddenly Wants to Be Perceived As Well-Read” in which she explores this juxtaposition:  on one hand, the country is undergoing book bans and the underfunding of libraries, on the other hand, a select few enjoy bookshelf wealth and throw exclusive book parties. 

How is this dichotomy possible? How is it true that young people are reading more than ever — or at least talking about it online more than ever — while their professors say those same young people are reading far less than past generations? Is somebody lying? 

I have a few off–the-cuff thoughts, which I ask that no one hold me to. 

First, while I don’t think anyone is lying per se, I think there is an exaggeration on both sides. 

Certainly, just because students no longer want to read The Iliad doesn’t mean college students cannot read. When I first read The Atlantic article, I couldn’t help but detect a tone of “kids these days” that didn’t seem rooted in any concrete phenomenon. While I trust what teachers say they’re experiencing, I also believe every older generation tends to find something to complain about when it comes to the younger generation. 

But I also think the increase in young people posting about books online does not mean that every book posted is actually being read. As a bookstagrammer myself, there are many, many books I’ve posted on my feed for likes — and many of those remain unread. 

Certainly, the anecdotes about how many young people are reading are somewhat unreliable. 

I’ve been hearing that “kids don’t read” from teachers my whole life — which always felt strange, because my friends and I all loved reading. But I guess the issue was that we wanted to read The Hunger Games instead of Shakespeare. 

Some of the disconnect may not be that Gen Z or the younger generations aren’t reading at all, but rather that they are choosing to read different (largely modern) books. On BookTok, I see the rise of young women who love romance books, yet get pushback for not reading anything deemed “substantive”. 

Second, this might be the opportunity to acknowledge that “reading” and “comprehension” are not the same. Not all reading is effective. A quick Google search of “What is literacy?” reveals that literacy is not only the ability to read and write, but also something a bit more. 

A possible theory is that not all books require deep consideration or comprehension. I’ve seen conversations about how some genres heavily rely on tropes, which, over time, readers are able to shortcut the understanding process. If a book is marketed as having a specific trope, there’s no need to wonder whether it will appear; you already know it will. That’s why you bought the book. 

Unfortunately, when it comes to reading assessments in school, these books may not build the kinds of skills those tests are designed to measure. That’s not to legitimize standardized assessments, or to suggest that a book has less value because it relies on tropes. Rather, I’m saying not all books serve the same purpose or demand the same things from their readers.  

Lastly, I think that when we say books are becoming cooler, we may really mean that reading has become a more fervent passion among people who were already readers, not necessarily that it has become a more widespread hobby. 

I do think there are converts. But I also think what’s happening is that casual readers are becoming less casual about their reading. What might be five books a year becomes 50, especially when you can log your progress on Goodreads or StoryGraph, or post about your reading on TikTok or Instagram. 

Of course, the stats are what they are. But if the numbers show that comprehension assessment scores are declining while Gen Z reads more than any other generation, I have to wonder what’s at play. 

Ultimately, I think the popularity of book communities is a good thing. I certainly wonder, though, how these same communities might help bridge the gap to improve the country’s literacy as a whole.