| Forwarded this newsletter? Subscribe here. | Hello and happy Sunday! After February — a full month of curating Black history and a piece for a friend’s upcoming books — I've been sitting with the role reading plays in our lives, against new data indicating that we don’t read like we used to. Since y’all are reading this, you might not struggle with reading, but I’ve made a point to carve out more time to enjoy a physical book. Maybe you'll be inspired to do the same! | A few changes here at Reimagined: I'm activating our Patreon as a space for conversation and community. After I send each newsletter, I get to see the richness of your responses, but you don't get to see each other's. Patreon will be a space to engage in conversations around the content here, including our new weekly job board, posted every Friday. You can join for free, regardless of whether you’re a one-time or monthly donor, and every contribution is appreciated. | Readers like you make this newsletter possible. Consider making a one-time or monthly donation on our website, PayPal or Venmo (@reimaginednews) to help sustain this work. You can always manage your subscription here. | Hope you have a wonderful week, | Nicole | ps – looking for the audio version of this newsletter? Click to read the web version, and you’ll find the audio recording at the top of the page. This is a service provided by Beehiiv, our email publishing platform, and AI-generated. |
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| | Reading rates in the United States have declined steadily over the past two decades. The National Endowment for the Arts reported that less than half of American adults had read a work of literature in 2003 — a drop of seven percentage points from 1992. The American Time Use Survey found that the average American spent approximately nineteen minutes per day reading in 2004. By 2022, that figure had fallen to ten minutes. The share of Americans who haven’t read any books in a given year rose from roughly 8% in the late 1970s to approximately 23% in 2021. Declines have been most pronounced among young adults and men, but every demographic is reading less than before. | Scholars have proposed several explanations. Obviously, the growth of digital media and smartphone use is frequently cited. Screen time has increased as reading rates have fallen. Studies on attention suggest that this screen time may reduce our tolerance for the sustained focus that reading requires. Economic factors also play a role: Americans are working more hours than a generation ago. Our leisure time is limited, and many of us may find it easier to be stimulated by videos on our screens than to read. Some researchers point to educational shifts. Standardized testing requirements reduced time available for independent reading in K–12 schools beginning in the early 2000s, and most students aren’t assigned whole books to read in their curriculum. Some argue that digital reading — long-form journalism, online books, newsletters like this one, I’d imagine — goes undercounted in surveys that focus primarily on physical books and audiobooks. But regardless, this consumption is unlikely to outweigh the measured decline. | The sociopolitical consequences are fascinating. Our deep literacy skills grow with long-form reading (when we read more than 1,000 words in a session). This practice gives us the tools to follow extended arguments, evaluate evidence, and understand perspectives other than our own. These skills are considered foundational to informed democratic participation: readers are more likely to vote and identify misinformation on the web. Cognitive neuroscientist Maryanne Wolf emphasizes that the decline of deep reading represents not merely a cultural shift, but a threat to the cognitive infrastructure on which democratic societies depend. A population that consumes information primarily through short-form and algorithmically curated content is more susceptible to oversimplification, which can lead to the collapse of shared factual frameworks. | What we choose to read — and whether we choose to read at all — is inseparable from who we choose to become. Reading builds the capacity for empathy by requiring us to inhabit lives unlike our own. It builds the capacity for discernment by requiring us to sit with complexity long enough to understand it. It builds the capacity for imagination by giving us language for worlds that do not yet exist. Without it, who will we allow to read for us? Whose imaginations will we allow to shift our reality? Reading is a way of being, one that asks us to slow down, to attend, to think. As we grow, we’ve got to explore how we can protect the conditions in which reading remains possible and reclaim that spark for ourselves and our communities. | | | Start with a short and simple goal: ten pages. Five pages. One page! It’s more important to stay consistent than the speed you finish a book. Pick something you actually want to read, not something you think you should. Put the book somewhere you'll be reminded to read. A great place is next to something you already do consistently. If you drink coffee each morning, put it next to the coffee maker. If you’re diligent about your skincare routine, leave it next to the bathroom sink. Friction kills habits. Make the book accessible. Read at the same time every day and anchor it to that habit, like your morning coffee, or when you take your dog for a walk or to the dog park. Give yourself permission to quit a book that isn't working. Nothing kills a reading habit faster than forcing yourself through something you hate! If you’re struggling through a book with an important topic, try to watch interviews with the author, a documentary on the subject, or the book’s reviews or SparkNotes. Start with short-form. Essays, short stories, poetry collections. Anything that can be finished in one sitting reminds you that reading feels good and adds a sense of completion to the task. As you read, turn off notifications on your phone or leave it in another room to minimize distraction and keep you in the habit. Track your progress, even loosely. A sticky note on the fridge. A note in your phone. Seeing the list grow is its own motivation. Remember why you loved it. Think of one book that changed something for you. That feeling is still available. You just have to show up for ten pages to find it again.
| | | What is your recommendation for the juiciest, steamiest, most riveting book you couldn’t put down? How did you reclaim your love of reading? Let us know on Patreon. | |
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| | | Organizations worth supporting that are guiding more readers to resources | | The American Writers Museum in Chicago has a mission to excite audiences about the impact of American writers–past, present, and future–in shaping collective histories, cultures, identities, and daily lives. |
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| | Our Kids Read, a Maryland-based program, is trying to help boost literacy rates in children by donating free books and hosting reading sessions. |
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| | Anyone can build a Little Free Library and make books more accessible in their community. Here are tools to get started. |
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| | | Conflict Evolution 101 | Monday, April 6 | 3-5pm EST | Learn how to navigate moments of tension and conflict as they arise in professional settings. Participants will learn practical, real-time strategies for de-escalating situations, intervening effectively, and rebuilding trust after moments of rupture. Through hands-on practice and scenario work, we’ll develop a personalized toolkit for addressing workplace tensions while maintaining cultural awareness and psychological safety. | |
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| | Reading has always been a form of resistance, even when it’s recreational. Here are four events that shaped the world of reading as we know it today. | The criminalization of literacy under slavery (1740–1865) | In 1740, South Carolina enacted the Negro Act, which prohibited teaching enslaved people to read or write. The legislation was passed in the aftermath of the Stono Rebellion, a slave uprising that killed more than twenty white colonists. Most Southern states enacted similar statutes over the following century, with penalties applied to both enslaved people and the white individuals who taught them. Virginia's 1831 law, passed in the wake of Nat Turner's rebellion, imposed fines and corporal punishment for violations. Proponents of the laws argued that literacy facilitated communication among enslaved people and increased the likelihood of organized resistance. The laws remained in effect until the abolition of slavery following the Civil War. | The establishment of public libraries (1848–early 1900s) | The Boston Public Library, established by an act of the Massachusetts legislature in 1848, was the first publicly funded municipal library in the United States. Its founding was premised on the idea that tax-supported institutions should make books and educational materials available to all residents regardless of economic status. Between 1883 and 1929, Scottish-American industrialist Andrew Carnegie funded the construction of 2,509 libraries across the English-speaking world, including 1,689 in the United States. Access to these institutions was not uniform. In the South, Carnegie libraries were frequently segregated or entirely closed to non-white patrons, prompting the establishment of separate |
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