The Quiet Collapse of Reading—and the Only Real Solution

Fiction Is Fading, Kids Are Skipping, Parents Are Scrolling. What to Do?

In the grand historical sweep of our species, humans have been reading for less than a blip. Still, my goodness, what a moment! Plato, Virgil, Augustine, Dante, Cervantes, Austen, Douglass, Melville, Twain, Wharton, O’Connor, Morrison. . . But is that glorious moment fading?

“The Reader” by Federico Faruffini, 1864.

Apologies, but here are some depressing…