Reading in the dark: From American screen fatigue to Russian book guerrillas
In an age when information is more accessible than ever, a quiet crisis is unfolding around the world: the steady disappearance of books from daily life.
For generations, reading was considered a pillar of open societies, a vital tool for developing empathy and a deeply personal refuge. Today, that foundation is eroding under the combined pressures of economic insecurity and rapid technological change. While readers in Western democracies face fragmented attention amid social media and battles over what belongs in public libraries, readers in authoritarian countries face a more direct threat. In Russia, where books are wrapped in plastic and passages are blacked out with ink, reading has become not just a leisure activity but, for some, an act of civil disobedience.
The vanishing reader
The decline of reading as a voluntary, pleasurable pursuit is no longer merely anecdotal. It is a measurable trend.
A study published in the journal iScience found that the share of Americans who read for pleasure on a given day fell by more than 40% over two decades, from 28% in 2004 to 16% in 2023, The New York Times reported. The researchers analyzed data from 236,270 people who participated in the American Time Use Survey between 2003 and 2023, excluding 2020 because of methodological issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The study, conducted by researchers at University College London and the University of Florida, found that daily reading for pleasure declined by about 3% a year over the period. The decline was not evenly distributed: disparities widened across racial groups and by education and income levels.
The implications extend beyond a change in entertainment preferences. Reading is associated with literacy, employment, health and cultural understanding, according to the researchers. The study also found that people with higher levels of education and income were more likely to read for pleasure, highlighting widening disparities in access to and engagement with reading.
Screens, economic pressure and the parent-child gap
The researchers pointed to several potential factors behind the decline, including the rise of digital media, growing economic pressures, shrinking leisure time and uneven access to books and libraries. Because the study was observational, however, it could not establish the causes of the decline.
Jill K. Sonke, a co-author of the study and a researcher at the University of Florida’s Center for Arts in Medicine, has pointed to digital culture as part of the explanation, alongside structural factors such as economic insecurity and declining leisure time. Daisy Fancourt, a co-author and professor at University College London, has emphasized the importance of reading with children for language development, literacy, empathy and emotional development.
The decline is already visible in the next generation. In 2023, just 2% of participants in the study reported reading with children on the day recorded in their time-use diary. About 21% of the sample had a child under 9 in the household on that day, yet there was no evidence that reading with children had changed over the 2003-2023 period.
Given the strong connection between early shared reading and future literacy, researchers view the current low rates as deeply concerning.
The bureaucratic siege of public libraries
While economic pressures and digital distractions may reduce people’s desire or ability to read, institutional barriers can restrict access to books themselves.
In the U.S., a wave of challenges to books and changes in library policies is reshaping how public libraries handle materials for children and young adults. Recent reporting by 404 Media found that books are being moved from youth sections to adult shelves based on their content or themes.
In Alaska, for example, an assembly member proposed a resolution that would have prohibited the Matanuska-Susitna Borough Public Library System from making books and other media available if a borough manager deemed them «harmful to minors.» The proposal drew strong opposition from local residents and was ultimately withdrawn.
Tying funding to content restrictions
The pressure on libraries is also being reinforced through state-level policies that tie public funding to restrictions on children’s access to certain materials.
In South Carolina, legislative provisions threaten to completely strip public library systems of their state funding unless local directors certify that their children’s and youth sections contain nothing of «prurient interest» to a 17-year-old. Similarly, the Alabama Public Library Service amended its administrative code to withhold vital state funds from libraries that fail to restrict minors’ access to «sexually explicit» or «inappropriate» material, which has been expanded to include any content addressing the concept of more than two biological genders.
Tasslyn Magnusson, a senior adviser with PEN America’s Freedom to Read program, has argued that moving young adult books to adult sections can function as an indirect way of reducing access to diverse literature. When books no longer circulate among their intended audiences, they become more likely to be removed from collections during routine «weeding.»
That can create a broader feedback loop: If books featuring diverse characters or sensitive themes circulate less because of access restrictions, publishers and libraries may incorrectly conclude that there is little demand for them.
Inside Russia’s cellophane reality
If libraries in the U.S. are facing a bureaucratic battle over access to books, Russian readers are confronting a more direct system of state censorship.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the tightening of domestic censorship laws, the government has expanded restrictions on books and authors. Writers designated as «foreign agents,» including Boris Akunin and Dmitry Glukhovsky, have faced restrictions on the public sale and distribution of their works.
In reporting for Novaya Gazeta Europe, Irina Kravtsova noted that the censorship has grown so broad and neurotic that publishers have begun voluntarily blacking out entire paragraphs and pages with heavy black ink to avoid criminal prosecution, while books about historical figures like Pushkin or Magellan are slapped with drug-use warning labels.
In one prominent case, Italian literature professor Roberto Carnero’s biography of filmmaker and writer Pier Paolo Pasolini was published in Russia with extensive passages obscured by black ink. The Russian edition was published by AST in 2024.
The emergence of library guerrillas
The crackdown has also fueled a counter-movement. Kravtsova has reported on informal networks of «book guerrillas» creating independent spaces where Russians can read, preserve and discuss censored literature.
In Ivanovo, an independent project known as the George Orwell Library emerged in 2022 as a space for books and free discussion. The library was founded by Dmitry Silin, a local businessman and critic of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Silin initially distributed copies of George Orwell’s «1984» and «Animal Farm,» as well as Leo Tolstoy’s «Hadji Murat,» to local residents. He later left Russia amid concerns about prosecution. The library continued operating as an independent, privately supported space.
Dragons guarding banned books
A similar form of resistance has emerged in St. Petersburg, where a woman identified by Kravtsova as Elizaveta turned her private apartment into a repository for banned or difficult-to-find literature.
Her activism began after she encountered restrictions surrounding books sold in Russia. She subsequently began collecting classic works of science fiction and other literature that had become difficult to find in mainstream bookstores.
Kravtsova quotes Elizaveta describing herself as «a dragon sitting on book treasures.» Her collection serves not only as a form of personal protest but also as a resource for people seeking books that have become difficult to obtain through conventional channels.
Restoring the blacked-out text
For younger Russians, resistance to censorship has also taken creative forms.
Two Moscow university students, Marina and Varvara, founded an underground book club dedicated to reading works that had been banned or restricted. According to Kravtsova’s reporting, the club grew to dozens of members and provided a space where students could discuss literature without the restrictions they faced elsewhere.
The resistance has also moved online. Independent book bloggers have posted videos showing how to «heal» censored books by obtaining uncensored editions, printing the missing passages and placing them over sections covered with black ink.
The enduring power of the written word
Despite the risk of academic expulsion, job loss or denunciation, readers continue to find ways around restrictions.
American librarians and Russian activists are responding to very different pressures, but their efforts point to the same underlying reality: Attempts to control access to literature can change where and how people read, but they do not necessarily eliminate the desire to read.
