For many years, the reading habits of Western Civilisation has been getting steadily worse. Back in 2012, a study by the National literacy trust showed that there was a 10% drop from 2005 in the amount children and young people enjoyed reading, and an entire 25% decline in daily reading from 2005 to 2012 (Clark 10-11).   Another study by the same group in 2018 showed that there had been a rise in both daily reading and enjoyment of reading since 2012, but levels in both categories were still decreasing since the start of the organization in 2005 (Clark 3-6). This was a bad trend, since many studies have shown a direct connection between the amount of reading students do outside of class and their reading comprehension, and their appreciation of reading as adults.  There was, of course, an effort made to encourage children to read. But part of the problem was that lives filled up with driving, lots of school, and  playing with friends, so that without any intrinsic reading motivation pushing them to make time, and with many lacking the enjoyment of reading that makes it fun instead of a chore, there wasn’t much happening.

Enter the lockdown of 2020. Kids and adults alike were left without all of their normal occupations, to spend their time only in things possible to be done at home. Unsurprisingly, many turned to the hobby they already enjoyed the most – playing video games and watching TV. But reading books did become a lot more popular as a result of the lockdown. The biggest increases in reading and liking reading came from people who had already read a fair bit before the pandemic started. 

There were two genres most read during the pandemic. Many people wanted comfort from predictable stories, or books they had already read a lot of. Others, (especially adults) started to pick up the more boring, long, and informative books that they had never found the time for before. (Bucher, Harrison, Giovanelli)

While the lockdown did provide people with spare time that they could use for reading, it made it much harder to get books. Libraries were shut down, and many people were reluctant to spend their money ordering books. This led to many people sticking to books they already owned, and so had often already read. Yes, digital books were available, for little to no cost, and could have widened the options of many people who were confined in the physical copies available to them. The problem was that many people do not think of digital copies when they want to read. Some think of them as not really books, many feel uncomfortable reading in a device. One study drew the conclusion that schools should be acclimatizing students to the use of digital devices for reading on.