Will we still be reading English literature in the future?
Shafquat Towheed (The Open University)
Is reading in danger?
We are currently in the midst of the National Year of Reading 2026, supported by the National Literacy Trust, and have just had the UNESCO supported World Book Day (23 April), organised in the UK on 5 March by the Reading Agency. Initiatives like these aim to counter the decline in reading (especially of imaginative literature) in recent years. The National Literacy Trust has found that 1 in 10 children do not own any books of their own at home, while only 1 in 3 children said that they enjoyed reading in their free time (a 36% decrease in reading enjoyment levels since 2005). The decrease in reading enjoyment was particularly marked among boys aged 11-16. Given these figures, will future generations be reading and enjoying English literature?
Why reading matters
One thing we do know is that reading longform imaginative literature has multiple benefits (mental wellbeing, emotional resilience, generating empathy, developing communication skills etc), beyond the pleasure of reading itself. However, we shouldn’t underestimate the transformative nature of reading imaginative literature, and the historical record is replete with such examples of life changing reading, such as this account of a 19th century Welsh blacksmith found in the Reading Experience Database:
A friend of mine, a Welsh blacksmith, was twenty-five years old and could neither read nor write, when he heard a chapter of ‘Robinson’ read aloud in a farm kitchen. Up to that moment he had sat content, huddled in his ignorance, but he left that farm another man. There were day-dreams, it appeared, divine day-dreams, written and printed and bound, and to be bought for money and enjoyed at pleasure. Down he sat that day, painfully learning to read Welsh, and returned to borrow the book. It had been lost, nor could he find another copy but one that was in English. Down he sat once more, learned English, and at length, and with entire delight, read ‘Robinson’.
Reading changes lives, and this impact of the immersive reading of literature continues in the digital age.
Audiobooks and TikTok lead the way
While the distraction and threat from digital content and AI is real, new formats and platforms might also be used to energise and refresh readers’ engagement with literature. National Literary Trust research shows that nearly 40% of children found that listening to a podcast or an audiobook got them interested in reading books. Meanwhile, #BookTok on TikTok now accounts for up to 6% of total book sales, according to figures from Nielsen Book Scan, and this is particularly strong for young adult readers and new genres such as Romantasy. New generations of readers are now rediscovering print from digital interactions.
Shafquat Towheed is Director of Research in the School of Arts and Humanities, The Open University. He is interested in both the history and future of reading.
