Why we read

Reading for pure pleasure

Content and community are shaping our relationship with books like never before, but reading, at its core, should be solitary, nonperformative and a respite from the world’s near-constant chatter. Reading is the ultimate – and maybe the last uncorrupted – joy. In our world of multi-tasking and stolen focus, reading remains an activity that requires the entirety of our attention. For many of us, this makes it something difficult to actually do. But when we do, being immersed in a book is a certain kind of euphoria (if time is the ultimate luxury, then reading is surely a close second). It’s the same reason many people still choose to see a movie at the theatre – where fear of retribution from other cinema-goers stops us from checking our phone – despite it already being available to stream from the comforts of our own home. But unlike movies, reading is even more indulgent, even more delicious, because it’s a pleasure – and maybe one of the rare pleasures in that we don’t ever have to feel guilty about it. Society has deemed reading a worthy pursuit. As children, we are encouraged to read, and as adults, the part of our brain that sees books as inherently good (especially compared to TV, video games and other devices) never goes away.

Reading to relate

In 2024, reading is not only an activity we do snuggled up in bed on a Sunday night, but a way to connect and come together with people (especially as many of us are shunning alcohol in record numbers, and looking to find interesting ways to socialise sober). “After a lot of my friends moved away at the end of uni, a few of us used the premise of the book club to make friends and have regular catch-ups,” says Adele, a 25-year-old public servant living in Canberra. “It was a great icebreaker. Now every six weeks or so we get takeaway and just go to someone’s house, have dinner and chat about the book. One time we had a dinner party because we read Stanley Tucci’s Taste and we all made things from the book.” In New York City, book clubs have evolved into reading parties, with bookworms gathering in bars and restaurants to read in silence and then converse during coordinated intervals as a piano softly tinkles in the background. With the cosy environment, both extroverted and introverted literature lovers can relish in comfort, camaraderie and conversation. (Some even find themselves in a meet-cute.)

Reading for romantasy

“We’re in a time of less literary snobbery,” explains Caitlan Cooper-Trent, a literary agent at Curtis Brown Australia. “I think a lot of that is women unashamedly sharing what they think is fun with each other.” According to research from the Publishers Association in the UK, 68 per cent of respondents say that BookTok has inspired them to read a book they would never have considered otherwise. Once thought of as “fluff”, the books most popular with BookTok – often romance, fantasy and the hybrid genre “romantasy” – are now bolstering the book economy, their authors reaching rockstar-level recognition. Sarah J. Maas (author of the A Court of Thorns and Roses series) and Rebecca Yarros – whose novel Iron Flame became Waterstones’ highest-selling pre-order title in a single day, four months ahead of its release last November – are now household names. There’s an entire corner of the internet dedicated to their books, from fan theories to book rankings, compilations of favourite quotes and outfits inspired by books. Fan-fiction, too, is booming and occasionally causing controversy on the app. Late last year, an erotic ebook inspired by Traylor had Swifties up in arms, as they decried the book’s sex scenes as an invasion of privacy akin to the recent creation of AI-generated deep-fake porn using the popstar’s likeness.

The genres to know next

The rise of romantasy – driven by an appetite for escapism – will mean we can expect to see more genre-bending in the future. “It’s shown us that audiences aren’t scared of genre, or genre crossovers, and publishers are listening to that,” explains CooperTrent. In the coming years, expect to see even more crossover fiction, from satirical sci-fi to crime-come-comedy (“Keep your eyes out for debut author Chloe Wilson’s new book Rytual, a fun and pacey capitalism thriller about a cult beauty brand which turns out to be an actual cult,” says Cooper-Trent). In a similar vein, we are also set for a horror revival. “A lot of the things that we are dealing with as a society at the moment are really scary. But people don’t want to read didactic books around it. Horror is a way for readers to be scared, think about scary things, but then have that moment of relief,” she adds. A desire for experimentation and the literary equivalent of eavesdropping will also see a surge in fiction that deals with non-traditional romances and unconventional relationship dynamics (an area we have seen authors like Sally Rooney, Emma Jane Unsworth, Marian Keyes and Dolly Alderton began to pioneer in the past five or so years). “I think there’s so much room for books that look at platonic friendships or relationships that are in the grey area, like non-monogamy, open relationships and even situation-ships,” says Cooper-Trent, highlighting the way in which books give people a view into a world they’re curious about, without forcing them to come face to face with those things in real-life.