“I wish I liked to read, but I just get bored.”
I often hear people say this when reading comes up in conversation. Perhaps you’ve even said something along these lines yourself.
Reading books for pleasure is a lost art. Amid dense readings for class, it’s easy to see reading as something meant only for intellectual advancement. Why struggle through ‘boring’ text when you could easily watch a show or scroll on your phone?
Reading can be an entertaining pastime — not necessarily an alternative to phone time, but an addition. In an era of AI chatbot summaries and short-form content that cripple our attention spans, everyone, especially non-readers, should work to ignite in themselves a passion for literature by cracking open a hardcover that satisfies their desire to be entertained. In response to our AI-induced dwindling attention spans, I propose that we read bad books.
The literacy crisis is a term often used to describe the effects of Gen Z’s waning reading habits. According to a U.S. Census survey, only 48.5% of adults ages 18-24 had read a book at least once in the past 12 months. This national drop in reading rates has led to declines in comprehension, attention span, understanding perspectives beyond one’s own and vocabulary and spelling (among many other detrimental issues). Without regular practice reading for pleasure, when students slog through class readings without a regular reading habit the content can feel overwhelming. With the instant-gratification age of compact AI responses and short videos on social media, we are losing the skills that allow us to stay engaged long enough to let a narrative unfold slowly, over the course of several hundred pages.
Replacing reading — and the skills and perspective we develop through it — with media that doesn’t require the consistent mental visualization and comprehension of the written word has dangerous consequences. Especially in settings such as the workplace, a concern for college students planning for a post-grad career. Theorizing what the literacy crisis can mean for future employment, Forbes comments on the capabilities of regular readers: “Interpretation, synthesis and resilience. Without those habits, companies may inherit a generation of doers who can execute but hesitate to interpret.”
Heed this warning and hone your ability to interpret: cross some titles off your to-read list (or start one, if you haven’t already). If that’s a smutty fantasy novel or a predictably charming romcom, so be it. At the end of the day, you’re reading, and that puts you above about half the U. S. population who haven’t picked up a book in the past year.
Just as viral videos and popular shows can be cultural talking pieces, so can books. Real-life magic was sparked in the fall of 2025 when the “Heated Rivalry” series got popular (the show, and consequently the books by Rachel Reid). People at my school lent out their tattered copies and talked about staying up late to read. One person was desperate enough to print an entire book and read it illegally, and that version got passed around too.
And plenty of discourse focuses on who isn’t reading, but what about those who already do? I frequently hear the judgment that reading in public is ‘performative.’ What started as an online trend has now turned books into an accessory, a tool to project an appearance of faux intellectualism to onlookers. Offline, I’ve heard many call someone reading in public ‘performative’ or a ‘larper,’ a trending term that labels someone as acting inauthentically. But with reading so clearly at risk, why antagonize the person who goes out to read at a coffee shop or under a tree?
Regardless of judgment, reading something, even if not critically acclaimed, is undeniably better for your brain than not reading at all. Recreational reading can be difficult when we have internal and external ideas about what literature is and what is beneficial to consume. But even reading for entertainment is educational; all reading builds the same fundamental skills, no matter the content.
Whether it’s two hockey players in love, a Colleen Hoover romance or whatever else piques your interest, the skills derived from reading are essential to our mental capabilities and societal functioning. If reading isn’t a habit in your free time, start with what you know best. It can be the gateway to building the practice and getting comfortable with it.
And for regular readers, don’t worry about how you may be perceived under that tree, no matter what you’re reading. Shaming others for ‘performativism’ or reading less sophisticated topics essentially shames literacy. Reading bad books won’t necessarily ‘rot your brain’ — but instant gratification as a result of endless screen time will.
So don’t be afraid to pick up a copy for a cheap thrill — a book is a book.
Calli Taffel PZ ’30 is from Newburyport, Massachusetts. She’s seen the best and the worst of humanity through her search for Sapphic romcom books, and she has a blast reading them regardless.
Facebook Comments