As we celebrate reading this month, and the wondrous things it can do, I can’t help but reflect on the doom-and-gloom I’ve been hearing for a while about the decline of reading in the United States. I want to take a closer look at that, talk about how my writing is trying to combat that in its own little way, and my goals for reading as the year continues on…and of course, encourage you to read!

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A sweeping new study from the University of Florida and University College London has found that daily reading for pleasure in the United States has declined by more than 40% over the last 20 years […]

This makes me sad! And on a personal level, when I’ve talked to students about reading, or just people I know who don’t read, they often tell me they cannot concentrate or are too busy with other responsibilities, like school or work or family. Some have said that the way education has taught reading has made reading too difficult for people to suss out meaning in a work; others say generative AI and technology has made it easy for us to turn our brains off and summarize and parse written words for us; others say attention spans and focus have declined because of the instant availability and dependence on technology.

I have run into the concentration issues before, which I think comes from mental issues–my mood disorder and how I handle stress–in addition to being distracted by social media and streaming. But when I can’t concentrate on a book, that means I can’t concentrate on writing, either. To me, reading and writing are intrinsically linked.

I also have run into issues where work has sucked the life out of me, and I have no energy or not enough free time to devote to reading for pleasure. I tend to fall into a little bit of a depression when the situation ends up like this.

So, I can sympathize with a lot of nonreaders. But, as a writer, I feel compelled to read, and as a reader, I love being taken to new worlds that I can immerse myself in, characters I can consider my friends (or enemies!), and the cinematic experience of a story playing out in my mind. When people are unable to experience these sensations because they don’t read, I feel kind of bad for them.

As this article states, reading is a deliberate practice. Human brains were not wired for reading. You cannot observe someone read a book and then suddenly know how to do it. It requires practice and training and active participation. But once you get into reading, especially reading for pleasure, the benefits are great, as “The Benefits for Reading for Pleasure from Edutopia states:

• Play pleasure/immersive pleasure is when a reader is lost in a book. This is prerequisite to experiencing all the other pleasures; it develops the capacity to engage and immerse oneself, visualize meanings, relate to characters, and participate in making meaning.
  
• Intellectual pleasure is when a reader engages in figuring out what things mean and how texts have been constructed to convey meanings and effects. Benefits include developing deep understanding, proactivity, resilience, and grit.
  
• Social pleasure is when the reader relates to authors, characters, other readers, and oneself by exploring and staking one’s identity. This pleasure develops the capacity to experience the world from other perspectives; to learn from and appreciate others distant from us in time, space, and experience; and to relate to, reciprocate with, attend to, and help others different from ourselves.
  
• Work pleasure is when the reader develops a tool for getting something functional done—this cultivates the transfer of these strategies and insights to life.
  
• Inner work pleasure is when the reader imaginatively rehearses for her life and considers what kind of person she wants to be and how she can connect to something greater or strive to become something more. When our study participants engaged in this pleasure, they expressed and developed a growth mindset and a sense of personal and social possibility.

One of the major things that this list doesn’t mention bluntly is the development of empathy, which can be lumped under the “social pleasure” category. When you are placed in another person’s shoes and experience things from someone else’s perspective, the more empathetic you are to people in real life. Reading can actually help you become a better person!

The decline in reading for pleasure is a true tragedy to me, and the downward trend is expected to continue.

As a writer, I want dedicated readers, but with 54% of adults reading below a sixth-grade level, I’ve had to rethink my writing style a little bit. My books are not for everyone, and they shouldn’t be, and I can’t appeal to everyone. But I don’t want to ignore the fact that over half of the USA read below the sixth grade (aka, 11 and 12-year olds). So, as I wrote in my manifesto “Why I Write How I Write,” I tend to use simpler language and easier sentences. As much as I hope my prose is lush, I tend to write towards readability. This has gotten criticism from readers, though, so I’m not sure what to do. But it’s a style I can’t readily give up as it’s ingrained in me. I also write shorter volumes than expected for the fantasy genre–it still fits the market rule, but always on the lower end–even with trilogies. This is for readers who can’t dedicate attention spans to longer works, or have issues concentrating.

My writing style is also borne of my own reading struggles, too. As I wrote above, I have a mood disorder (bipolar I) that affects my ability to concentrate, especially when I’m depressed or stressed, and during those tough times, I gravitate towards simpler works that are on the shorter side. I’ll read more comics, manga, and novellas during those times as opposed to committing to a 400+ page fantasy with elevated prose.

Basically, while I’m writing for a specific type of reader (18 to 35-year-olds who like fantasy, romance, and darker elements with my Darkening Gate Trilogy; Son of the Siren was for 13 to 25-year-olds), I don’t want to leave out the readers who may struggle a little bit.

Shifting gears, let’s talk about my reading goals for the year: my Goodreads goal for 2026 is 100 books. This is a lot, but I used to be able to read almost 300 a year. That was back when I couldn’t find work. Now that I’m teaching and spend all my time grading, it is much harder to produce that sort of output.

However, I’m on my 44th book right now–The Legend of the Nine-Tailed Fox by Katrina Kwan–and part of the reason why I’ve been doing so well has been my uptick in reading comics and manga as a TOKYOPOP and NetGalley reviewer. Those types of publications run around 200 pages or so and are easily digestible, so I’ve been completing books at a great pace. I don’t know how long this will last (my mood is dipping, the stress is going up, and teaching is kicking my butt), but for now, I’m quite pleased.

I come from a highly literate family (we each have our own personal libraries, too!) and one of the greatest things my parents could instill in me was a love of reading. We were exposed to it early, not just through our parents, but by going to the library at a very young age to be read to aloud, spending time in bookstores and libraries, going through my parents’ bookshelves, and seeing them spend time actively reading. It was important to them, and that passed down to us three kids. My entire family loves reading and I’m so grateful for it. It brings me joy.

I’ve already listed the benefits of reading to you. I hope, if you can, just take five minutes every day reading something that isn’t social media, preferably an actual book of some kind. Audiobooks count as reading, too! If you spend five minutes daily, you can build a habit, and as the stories progress, you’ll become more involved, and soon will be able to knock out full books in a few days or so, or even faster than that.

During National Reading Month, please take the time to encourage reading, whether it is for yourself or others. There is nothing to regret as long as you’re reading something.