I'm so grateful books under the bridge continue to exist.
Low literacy levels are something of a hot-button topic in Romania, a country filled with rural areas and poor villages. One of my closest friends remembers going for several years without so much as one single bookstore in her town (and she's from one of the slightly bigger towns in Romania, not a tiny nowhere village, either) when she was younger. First-world problems, I know, but it unfortunately speaks volumes about a nation, the number of books that are bought and sold. In fact, in 2023, statistics placed Romania on the critically low end of the EU reading spectrum.
Last year, they showed a marked (20%) increase in bought books thanks to TikTok book recommendations. Still, the same article found 59% of Romanians read at least one book in 2024, with 22% reading about 5 books in the entire year. Reasons for great pride, indeed.
I struggle to understand it. I'm a born reader, Can't remember a time in my life when I was without a book in hand. Still, a lot of people seem to foster this impression that reading is a "hobby". Something for those idle hands to busy themselves with. People say "I just don't have the time", when that's hardly ever true, if we only look at studies (also from last year) that found Romanians spend on average 7 hours a day on their phones. And while we might argue some of that is reasonable - texting, calls, work-related stuff - we all know the large majority of it is stuff like TikTok and Facebook scrolling.
I'm constantly fascinated when I see people scrolling their Facebook feed in the middle of a flight, when they obviously have no Internet and no "feed". They would rather stare at old shit and strangers' selfies than pick up a book. Talk about lacking time.
Anyway, that's why I love going to the UK - I could spend an entire holiday there (and usually do) in and out of bookstores. Endlessly, I love the culture that exists around books there and all the beautiful sanctuaries for readers that are peppered around London. The big chain stores like Foyles or Waterstones and the little, indie bookstores alike. Because we don't have them here. Here, you've got 2 "large" bookstore chains across the country and a couple tinier indie ones and that's it. Not to mention the appalingly limited selection of books. Whenever I'm in the UK, I'm literally like a kid in a candy store - I keep thinking "look at how many they have here". Which often creates trouble on the flight home. And back trouble. But hey, it's worth it. I know we're not gonna see many of these titles in Romania at all, and if we do, it's going to be in many years' time, and I don't know about the world in 3-4 years' time, so I like to take my reading when I can.
For me, London and Great Britain in general have always been markers of culture. It's, after all, the home of several great literary minds and when I'm not in a bookstore, you can find me trailing in the wake of some writer or other - pubs, streets, houses lived, etc. It's such an impressive culture, which makes it all the more shocking that literacy in the UK is also at a critical low that it hasn't seen in 20 years.
Some 2024 stats found that 24% of Brits hadn't read a single book in the 3 months leading up to the survey, with 14% reading only one in that time, and 9% having read 12 or more. It's very little, if you think about it, and I wonder what's to blame. Is it the time wasted on smartphones? Social media shortening our attention span? Is it general wide-spread apathy?
In a world where so much information is available, how is it that we want to know less and less?
It was interesting to me, searching for stats for this post, that several literacy studies and surveys in the UK focus on children and youths. We continue, somehow, to foster this idea that it's crucial for children to read (and it is). But what about adults? It's all very well being a big reader at 10, but it's no less useful being a big reader at 40. And sadly, it's not one of those things that once achieved, doesn't reset. Wallowing in illiteracy as a grown-up fosters ignorance and stupidity, irrespective of how much you enjoyed C.S. Lewis's books at 14.
It's certainly a depressing thought, one that echoes Ray Bradbury's iconic,
"You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”
Meanwhile, I had a blast strolling the bookstores and book fairs of London. All I saw were hoards of people - from the very yooung to the very old, from the natives to the passers-by like I - sharing in this love and awe of books. And what a heartwarming thing that was to see.
What are you reading?
I have to confess, I've never been much of a reader, I spend too much time flicking on my mobile and that's bad, I know it 😔.
Independent bookstores seem to be dying out in UK. We used to pride ourselves as a book loving nation, and that's why VAT (currently at 20%) doesn't apply to books. Luckily we still have Waterstones left in our town now, (a lot of the shops have closed down) but it doesn't seem that busy most of the times. They have a cafe attached to it and I noticed the cafe is gradually taking up more space in the store.
Tomorrow is World Book Day, is that promoted in Romania? I believe the industry here still tries to promote books and reading as much as possible, and the fact our Queen is known to know to love reading, has helped quite a bit in the movement.
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Excellent.
There's SO much competition for people's attention these days. I heard a reassuring stat a few weeks ago, Barnes and Noble began adding locations instead of closing them for the first time in well over a decade. There are a lot of us Americans who would benefit from reading, let me tell ya. : )
I find I feel so much better if I read a little every day--the day feels incomplete without it. My newest one is Entrances and Exits, Michael Richards' bio.
Oh I absolutely agree with you saying there’s less and less knowledge but we’re connected like never before… the content “needs” to be short and simple, people always hurry..
We should all take a break and take the time to read something good :)