With search engines offering instant answers, many feel there is no need to read deeply. Why read an entire book when a summary or video explanation is available? Yet information is not the same as understanding. Reading trains the mind to follow complex arguments, appreciate nuance, and tolerate ambiguity. When reading declines, opportunities for such silent moral education also diminish.
Dr Ratan Bhattacharjee
William Faulkner advised, “Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Reading widely across genres, including non-fiction, exposes writers to new ideas and worldviews, adding depth and texture to their own work. Many authors find that reading inspires them to write and helps them connect with the broader literary community. Most successful writers are avid and international readers, considering the habit a crucial part of their craft. They view reading not just for pleasure, but as a form of apprenticeship and a continuous source of inspiration and education.
Writers read to understand narrative structures, plotting techniques, dialogue styles, and grammar from “masters” in their field. Famous authors often share a common dedication to reading a high volume and a variety of books. James Baldwin is said to have “read himself out of two libraries in Harlem” before he was 13, emphasising that he continued to read to “learn how to write” throughout his career. Haruki Murakami also emphasises ploughing through as many novels as possible while young to understand “how one is put together” at a physical level.
There was a time, not very long ago, when reading was not an activity to be planned or scheduled but a natural rhythm of everyday life. Books lay open on bedside tables, newspapers arrived with the morning sun, libraries were places of quiet discovery, and the act of reading shaped how people thought, spoke, dreamed, and even disagreed. Today, while written words surround us more than ever on screens large and small, the deep habit of reading—slow, immersive, reflective reading—seems to be slipping away.
Digitalisation affects reading habits by making content more accessible via electronic formats, but also leading to shorter attention spans and a preference for skimming over deep reading due to constant digital distractions. While digital formats offer flexibility, they can also reduce reading time, hinder comprehension, and make sustained reading more difficult. What we consume now is abundant but fleeting, skimmed rather than absorbed, glanced at rather than contemplated. The lost habit of reading is not merely about fewer books being read; it signals a deeper cultural shift in attention, imagination, and intellectual patience.
Reading is more than decoding words. It is an act of dialogue between the writer and the reader, between past and present, between one mind and another separated by time and space. Through reading, individuals encounter ideas they may never hear spoken aloud, lives they may never live, and questions they may never think to ask. The decline of this habit, therefore, has consequences far beyond literature. It reshapes how societies remember, reason, empathise, and envision their future. One of the most significant forces behind this decline is the dominance of digital media.
Smartphones, social platforms, and streaming services have transformed the way time is experienced. Moments that once offered space for reading—waiting for a bus, sitting quietly in the evening, travelling—are now instantly filled with scrolling, notifications, and endless short-form content. The brain becomes accustomed to rapid stimulation and frequent rewards. In contrast, reading a book demands stillness, focus, and sustained attention. It asks the reader to slow down in a world that insists on speed. For many, especially the younger generation growing up within this environment, such slowing down feels unfamiliar, even uncomfortable.
Another reason for the lost habit of reading is the illusion of information abundance. With search engines offering instant answers, many feel there is no need to read deeply. Why read an entire book when a summary or video explanation is available? Yet information is not the same as understanding. Reading trains the mind to follow complex arguments, appreciate nuance, and tolerate ambiguity.
Equally worrying is the impact on empathy. Literature, especially fiction, allows readers to inhabit perspectives unlike their own. A novel can place a reader inside another culture, era, gender, or moral dilemma with an intimacy no factual report can match. By living these imagined lives, readers learn emotional understanding without direct experience. When reading declines, opportunities for such silent moral education also diminish. Stephen King famously stated, “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.”
The loss of reading habits has implications for democracy and public life. Informed citizenship requires the ability to engage with complex texts: laws, policies, historical contexts, and ethical debates. A society that does not read deeply risks thinking superficially. There is also a personal, quieter loss involved. Reading offers a form of solace that few other activities can match. In moments of loneliness, grief, or confusion, books provide companionship without intrusion. They allow introspection without isolation. The reader enters a shared silence with the author, finding words for feelings that may otherwise remain unarticulated. When this refuge disappears, individuals may feel more restless, even when constantly connected.
International Tagore Awardee Dr Ratan Bhattacharjee is a former Affiliate Faculty at Virginia Commonwealth University, and at present, President of Kolkata Indian American Society. He is also an international poet cum columnist
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