Why people don't read books

I sailed through school without actually reading one of the assigned books. I learned to pass the tests through the discussions in the class and made book reports from skimming the books. I have never been a book reader and come from a family who always had their noses in a book. The second I open a book I get completely bored of the author's page and a half detailed description of the rainy day, for example, that I can't even fathom having to endure the torture to the end. I've read two books in my life; The Witch of Blackbird Pond and the Diary of Anne Frank, and soaked up every word. To my dismay, I just have very little patience for most writers. I often wonder what I am missing... until the movie comes out, that is! ;-)

Number 2 ... I'm feelin' ya on this one.

Oh, yes I am. I am a Gen-X female who would love to be able to find a good romance novel with characters and plots I can relate to. Like 43 percent of the women in my generation, I don't have kids, and my better half and I don't intend on having any. So, not being a part of the "core demographic," good luck with that, right?

11) Because TV, movies, and video games are easier. Newer media provide sight and sound, and - in the case of games - interaction. Not saying they are better (they certainly require less imagination on the part of the consumer), but they are in a way more complete media, or if nothing else, alternative forms of entertainment competing for the same recreational hours.

What a gloomy post! People ARE reading - but it was always a minority interest and remains so. All my friends read avidly - many of them don't have a TV! And most of my relations read avidly too - even the youngest. The 11-year-old and 13-year-old are possibly the most avid readers of all - and strangely they prefer paper books to their Kindles! When I go out and about I always see people reading - on the bus, on the train, in cafes and waiting rooms, all over the place. So let's not get too pessimistic!

Also, there comes a point of jadedness where the effort of finding something that you want to spend 3 hours inside is not worth trawling through dozens of possibles. Too much choice is a side effect of genre marketing: a thousand things that from the outside look very similar but it takes a good hour to discern that while it might look like a duck, quack like a duck, once you have roasted it and applied orange sauce, it turns out to be a seagull and inedible no matter what sauce you lob onto it.

Hi, the news around reading is good people are reading more and more. It just does not seem to be books. Maybe a reason for this is that books are not being put together in a way that appeals to the average reader out there?
Couple of comments on your top 10
1. A misleading cover – people have to be looking before they can be misled by a cover. The reality is that in this digital age book covers remain static and not dynamic as they should be. In other forms of consumer products we find that people rely on more than an image to make a decision. Think about the restaurant industry, once it’s review sites that matter not the front of the restaurant these days.

2. A lack of choice – The books that end up in supermarkets are the bestsellers, it’s sad, but its fact. Just like a supermarket only contains a limited amount of chesses, meets, wines etc… To get better books in supermarkets it’s about creating better bestsellers and from experience of seeing marketing department spend lots of money trying to make great books into bestsellers the answer is not spend more money on marketing.

3. Snobs. – couldn’t agree more. But think if everyone who read a book told all their friends, post them on Facebook, LinkedIn, told their colleagues at work, put stickers on the back of their car etc… People who read should be encouraged to tell everybody (even if they are a snob) this is the way that bestsellers have happened in the past and this is the way they will happen in the future.

5. The class system of books. It’s not the Marketing departments who do this, publishers don’t celebrate this fact, the reality is that it’s the way the market wants to see them (refer point 3, Snobs)

7. Pain. Maybe the book industry needs to think about making things a little less painful. I don’t read near as much as I should or would like to because of the format. Books I find in many cases are too long, painful to buy, and don’t fit in my life. I think about how someone today can consume sport, music and then think about the options available for books?

Thanks again for the post, very thought provoking.

Ref your point 2) I could make a point about the same overweight thrillers aimed at the same 40 something male commuter, but that would be a lazy, dismissive generalisation.

I agree with almost everything you say, but #6 has me feeling tense. All of my reviews, written, verbal, texted, emailed, tweeted and Facebooked, claim that my novel, SUKI is extremely original, but people aren't talking about it...does that make them #3? Snobs? I have never understood that. When I LOVE a book, as much as these readers say they love mine, I tell everyone to read it, and have brought some who have never picked up a book before into my reading circle...would love to hear your insights about that. I'm stumped.

Reading is a life skill and children who read for pleasure do so much better academically. Use of language clearly is power!

Books are culturally o-n-e of the best things created, right up there with music, art, theatre, astronomy, map making, cooking, carpentry, and the internet.

'Very often, at the supermarket, you are seeing about fifty books all aimed at the same middle class fifty year old woman, with the same modestly tasteful picture of a beehive or a wedding dress or a glove on the cover.'

I'm a 49-year-old middle class woman and this remark makes me feel like I've been put in a box.

Unfortunately, some people just WILL NOT read. Their parents didn't read, their partners don't read. They just don't see the point. I work with people who happily admit they've never read a novel and never would. It's a shame, but it just really isn't part of some people's lives.

Well said, Matt! Multiple shares are forthcoming.
Can't tell you how many people have said, "Let me know when your audio version comes out. I'm not really a reader, but I'll listen to it while I'm working out." Not sure why we maintain the perception that a book takes too much time, while we still devote an entire weekend to catching up on Game of Thrones - which you aptly pointed out is also words on a page.
Funny, people claim they DVR so they can watch on their own time & "pick it up & put it down" as they choose.
You can do that with a book & you need no special technology. Fascinating.

A very thoughtful and thought-provoking post.

I've loved books forever and can't imagine life without an extremely large TBR pile, but my (very literate!) husband often struggles with fiction and describes it 'like a building I'm circling, trying to find the way in'. Maybe as you say it's because so much fiction nowadays seems to be aimed at women?

Sorry Matt - I know you're writing for BOOKTRUST but your statement of the obvious is not obvious at all. Try my biography of Herbert Allingham - a man who wrote all his life, who wrote hundreds of thousands of words, who was read by millions, earning his living and supported his family by his writing and who was never once published in book form. But at least that's words. Trying rewriting your sentence beginning 'Culturally ... ' and replacing the word 'books' with, say, 'pictures' or 'music' and try imagining cultures other than our own. I am a writer. I love books. I do not think that they are unequivocally The Best things. 'Among the best' yes. But every time you're tempted to write such a huge statement, even for Booktrust, please remember that not all people find reading either easy or congenial. Love books but allow for difference too.

A good post, Matt. There is an author whose work I admire very much and discovered by accident. I get a lot of visitors. They leave me their books. As a result, I read all kinds of things I would never pick up myself. One such was because of the cover. (Beautiful lady in red full-length gown) My friend was disappointed the story wasn't what she expected. Later, when I was bookless, I began to read and discovered a jewel. The author transported me, bewitched me, enthralled me and I felt bereaved when I finished reading. I sought out more of this author's novels and found they all had similar 'glamorous' covers that said nothing about the content and this from one of the biggest traditional publishers.
You don't mention computers and gaming and the part they play in people not reading. Perhaps that's wise. Don't get me started. I'll go into a rant about parenting.
Thanks for another interesting read.
Cheers,
Celia

I think I must be in the minority with supermarket choice...maybe because we don't have many bookshops round here but there is always something that tempts me in mine and I already have a lot of books. There's a YA section and lovely new releases as well as what is quite a varied chart plus the bargain backlist 3 for £5. But I hear lots of people saying supermarket books are rubbish. Maybe they don't have translated novellas from small presses but they have enough to interest a wide range of interests.

No. 9 probably the most important.

The obvious answer is simply because people don't want to. I know a lot of people who don't read purely because they listen to music or use their phone for facebook, twitter, blogging, texting on the way to work, spend the day working, repeat phone use on the way home, cook and sort out kids when they get home, crash in front f the telly for an hour with a glass of wine before falling into bed exhausted. I have a fourteen year old son who has ready access to hundreds of books, but will never get off of his xbox to read one (and forcing him is not the answer). No way will he be the first to do it, when he has 100+ online friends blasting aliens etc all day long on xbox live. I am a writer myself. We will never get everyone to read, we need to accept that and move on.

I love all your posts :)

In honour of someone I know who reads non-fiction books but not fiction because he thinks it's pointless/silly/childish (although he'll happily watch Coronation Street and pointless/silly/childish TV broadcasts like *cough* football *cough*), I would like to add:

11. People think stories are just for children (but only if the stories are written down - watching them portrayed on TV, stage, or cinema is perfectly grown-up).

And, entailed by 11:

12. People can be silly, irrational and fickle, and will happily form prejudices against all sorts of worthwhile things. They also often prefer to defend and rationalise their prejudices rather than question them.

(P.S. I have challenged my friend about his bonkers attitude to fiction. Many times. He admits I have a point but still doesn't read fiction.)

Another great post Matt, agree with every word.