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<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <title>Most Americans want to read more books. We just don't.</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width"> <link id="favicon" rel="shortcut icon" type="image/png" href="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABAAAAAQCAYAAAAf8/9hAAAAAXNSR0IArs4c6QAAAHlJREFUOBFjYBgFFIcA48cYpf/opvAv+YouxODXshZDbFONDSMLSJRv8V245KdYZTD7//8XcDFGRgkwe2O1NVzMv/UomA02AMQCaUQ2CCQG0ohsEEgMphHEBgEmCIWdRNeMTRXYBTBnw2iYQpjTYXx022Hio/RAhwAAjXEfJrIXnj4AAAAASUVORK5CYII="> <style> body { display: block; padding: 0px 20px; max-width: 550px; margin: 0 auto; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; } .full-version-link { margin-left: 15px; } .slug-line { font-size: 1.1rem; margin-bottom: 15px; } .hr-line { position: relative; height: 4px; } .hr-line:after { background: linear-gradient(to right, #e60000 0%, #e60000 33.33%, #000000 33.33%, #000000 66.66%, #3366CC 66.66%); position: absolute; content: ''; height: 4px; right: 0; left: 0; top: 0; } hr.gray { border: .5px solid gray; } .story-title { line-height: 2rem; font-size: 1.5rem; margin: 0; } .topic-heading { line-height: 2rem; font-size: 1.5rem; } .topic-container>ul { padding: 0; line-height: 1.4rem; } .topic-container li { display: block; padding-bottom: 15px; } .topic-container { margin-top: 20px; } .topic-date { margin: 20px 0; font-style: italic; } .paragraphs-container { line-height: 1.5rem; } .button:link, .button:visited { background-color: white; color: black; border: 2px solid black; padding: 4px 8px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; display: inline-block; } .button:hover, .button:active { background-color: black; color: white; } .lower-nav-container { margin-top: 40px; } .lower-nav-container li { margin-left: 0; display: inline; padding-right: 20px; } h6 { text-transform: uppercase; } </style> </head> <body> <header> <p>Text-Only Version <a class="full-version-link button" href="https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5333652">Go To Full Site</a></p> </header> <main> <article> <div class="story-container"> <p class="slug-line"> <a class="slug-link" href="/">NPR</a> > <a class="slug-link" href="/1161">Book News & Features</a> </p> <div class="story-head"> <h1 class="story-title">Most Americans want to read more books. We just don't.</h1> <p>By Andrew Limbong</p> <p>Monday, April 7, 2025 • 11:36 AM EDT</p> <p>Heard on <a href="/nx-s1-5310282/2025-04-07">All Things Considered</a> </div> <div class="hr-line"></div> <div class="paragraphs-container"> <p>When was the last time you read a book?</p><p>According to <a href="https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/most-americans-read-its-not-our-priority-leisure-activity" target="_blank">a new NPR/Ipsos poll,</a> reading is something a majority of Americans enjoy, and want to get better at. But it's nowhere near a top priority.</p><p>The online survey, conducted in late February, heard from a representative sample of more than 2,000 American adults.</p><p>According to the poll, 82% of respondents think reading is a useful way to learn about the world, 76% say reading is relaxing and a whopping 98% of respondents with children in their household want their children to "develop a love of reading."</p><p>Reading is "certainly aspirational," said Mallory Newall, vice president of Public Polling at Ipsos. "We certainly want to be a reading nation." And yet 51% of people read a book in the past month, according to the poll. In comparison, about 80% of people watched streaming services, used social media or watched a short-form video.</p><p>Interestingly, respondents who classify themselves as readers are also more likely than non-readers to consume other forms of media. So it's not necessarily a direct competition between, say, reading and scrolling on your phone. When asked about the "reasons you don't read more," "other life activities" was the most common answer, which could mean anything from doing chores to sleeping to hanging out with friends.</p><p>"I think reading is up against the fact that we just don't have enough time in the day. It's not one particular thing," said Newall.</p><p>But for many Americans it's not going to take precedence. When asked what they'd do with one extra hour of leisure time, the top of the list is spending time with family. Below that is a tied race between watching TV, reading and exercising.</p><p>"Women are significantly more likely than men to say that they would spend that extra hour reading," Newall said. "Folks with a higher education are much more likely than those with lower educational attainment to say the same thing."</p><p><h3>Thrillers top the list of genres</h3></p><p>Among the population who are reading, what are they reading? The thriller, crime, mystery category of books is the clear winner, with 37% of respondents choosing it as their favorite genre. There's a second tier of favorites with 24% of respondents choosing historical non-fiction, and memoir and historical fiction tied at 21%.</p><p>While reading tastes vary by gender and age, there are some patterns to note. Newall said it was women and respondents over 50 years old driving the thriller genre to the top of the list. But women's tastes tend to vary more than men, who "coalesce around nonfiction or historical nonfiction," she said.</p><p>Age, in general, plays a large factor in reading. Respondents over the age of 65 are the ones actually carving out time in their day to read. Newall said there's a transition of sorts we undergo over the course of our lives. "By the time we get older, reading is more ingrained in our daily or weekly routine," she said. Which is understandably easier if you don't have young kids, or are retired.</p><p>And for younger people, as aspirational as reading more may be, they say "it's lower priority and frankly, that it's a little boring," said Newall.</p><p><a href="/people/837048276/meghan-collins-sullivan"><em>Meghan Sullivan</em></a><em> contributed to the development of this poll and edited the story for radio and the web. </em></p> <hr> Related Story: <a href="/781673493">NPR</a> <hr> <hr> Related Story: <a href="/1188769974">NPR</a> <hr> <hr> <h3>Transcript</h3> <p>JUANA SUMMERS, HOST: <p><p> When was the last time you read a book? A new NPR/Ipsos poll dug into the reading habits of American adults. NPR's Andrew Limbong has the results.<p><p>ANDREW LIMBONG, BYLINE: The first question I asked Mallory Newall, vice president of public polling at Ipsos, was, are we - is America - a reading nation?<p><p>MALLORY NEWALL: We certainly want to be a reading nation. I think what this poll tells us is many Americans enjoy reading, broadly see it as relaxing, get a lot of value, a lot of connection from it...<p><p>LIMBONG: You can tell from her voice that a but is coming and, well...<p><p>NEWALL: ...But we're not necessarily prioritizing it as a leisure activity. I think instead, for many, especially for younger people, it's certainly more aspirational.<p><p>LIMBONG: Here are some numbers. The poll surveyed more than 2,000 American adults. Fifty-one percent said they read a book in the past month. That's compared to 80% who watched streaming TV, 78% who say they used social media. Here's the thing, though. It's more complicated than just streaming and social media replacing reading because respondents who classified as readers were also more likely to watch TV and use socials. So what's going on here?<p><p>NEWALL: Think reading is up against the fact that we just don't have enough time in the day. It's not one particular thing.<p><p>LIMBONG: When asked, which of the following are reasons that you don't read more? - yeah, work and other forms of entertainment charted pretty high, but by far the No. 1 choice was, I don't have enough time because of other life activities, which could include anything from hanging out with your kids to sleeping. So who is reading? The poll asked, if you had one extra hour of leisure time in your day, how would you most like to spend it?<p><p>NEWALL: Women are significantly more likely than men to say that they would spend that extra hour reading. Folks with a higher education, four-year degree or more, are much more likely than those with lower educational attainment to say the same thing.<p><p>LIMBONG: But one of the strongest demographic indicators for reading is age.<p><p>NEWALL: There's almost this transition that we undergo over the course of our lives that by the time we get older, reading is more ingrained in our daily or weekly routine.<p><p>LIMBONG: Which is a lot easier if you don't have young kids or are retired. Newall says women and people over the age of 50 drove the genre that is the clear favorite among readers.<p><p>NEWALL: Thriller, crime, mystery - obviously, it's had a moment in recent years with the explosion of true-crime podcasts and things like that, and that does top the list.<p><p>LIMBONG: But to go back to what Mallory Newall said up top, there is still a very strong aspiration towards reading, particularly among younger people. Seventy-one percent of respondents between the ages of 18 and 34 said they want to become a better reader. They just got to find the time to do it.<p><p>Andrew Limbong, NPR News.<p> </div> </div> </article> </main> <div class="hr-line"></div> <nav> <p>Topics</p> <ul> <li><a href="/1001">News</a></li> <li><a href="/1008">Culture</a></li> <li><a href="/1039">Music</a></li> </ul> </nav> <footer> <nav class="lower-nav-container"> <li><a href="/614470770">Contact Us</a></li> <li><a href="/179876898">Terms of Use</a></li> <li><a href="/179881519">Permissions</a></li> <li><a href="/179878450">Privacy Policy</a></li> </nav> <p>&copy NPR</p> </footer> </body> </html>