U.S. Reading Rates Decline While Book Production Surges, Shifting Literary Landscape
The U.S. is experiencing a significant imbalance between book writing and reading, with more people writing books than actively reading them. According to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) 2022 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, only 37.6% of U.S. adults read a novel or short story in the preceding twelve months, marking the lowest rate since the survey began in 1992. This figure is a four-point drop from 2017 and significantly lower than the 45.1% recorded in 2012. Conversely, the number of books published annually, as tracked by Bowker (the agency issuing ISBNs), has seen an extraordinary increase. This surge in book production is attributed to lower barriers to entry for authors, including accessible word processors, free editing tools, print-on-demand services, and e-book distribution, which have removed traditional gatekeepers.
