Best Of

Our elites now read less than the average member of the population and it shows.

'Britain’s elites no longer look like they did in the 1950s: droopy-moustached old white blokes with a grouse moor somewhere in their background. They are younger, more urban, more multi-ethnic, make rather than inherit their money. That’s all, we may think, to the good. But as The Telegraph’s Great British Class Study discovers, they are less likely than any other sector of society to spend their spare time reading.

For fewer than one in three members of the new “Elite” read for pleasure, according to polling conducted by the opinion-research firm Public First. Too busy with socials, or crypto, or the gym. By contrast, 45 per cent of the “Left Behind” group – whose members typically score the least economic and cultural points in the new system – are readers, as are 60 per cent of the typically older, more financially stable “Quietly Comfortable” class.'
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/news/britains-elites-have-abandoned-intelligence/

I used to read a lot for pleasure.

Then I started reading PB instead.

Yeah, I'm exactly the same. But I feel ambivalent about it. I enjoy the snappy points on PB and the way the arguments develop with many informed contributions but I can't help lamenting how long it is since I read a novel from beginning to end. I seem to be losing the ability to simply be absorbed in a different world and I miss it.

One of the reasons I booked a series of long train journeys for this summer, Paul Theroux style, was to get me back into reading a book every few days. As it happens I’ve started back up months ahead of time, because the pile of books (a mixture of novels and travel writing) I ordered ahead of the trip have been sitting there asking to be started.

Sounds a good plan.
My partner loves train travel so we’re training it from Glasgow down to London then the Eurostar to Lille for four nights in May. I’ve pencilled in a reread of The Tin Drum then Flesh (Booker Prize winner) plus something non fiction for leavening. Will try not to dip in and out of tomes and ration internet time, time to rediscover some self discipline.

My son took the train up to Glasgow recently to visit a friend. A very long journey but more visually attractive than the East coast main line to Edinburgh. I’d love to think he devoured a few books but I suspect he spent the whole journey on Roblox and TikTok.

...what? Impossible to beat Holy Island, the Tweed, Durham Cathedral.

Our elites now read less than the average member of the population and it shows.

'Britain’s elites no longer look like they did in the 1950s: droopy-moustached old white blokes with a grouse moor somewhere in their background. They are younger, more urban, more multi-ethnic, make rather than inherit their money. That’s all, we may think, to the good. But as The Telegraph’s Great British Class Study discovers, they are less likely than any other sector of society to spend their spare time reading.

For fewer than one in three members of the new “Elite” read for pleasure, according to polling conducted by the opinion-research firm Public First. Too busy with socials, or crypto, or the gym. By contrast, 45 per cent of the “Left Behind” group – whose members typically score the least economic and cultural points in the new system – are readers, as are 60 per cent of the typically older, more financially stable “Quietly Comfortable” class.'
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/news/britains-elites-have-abandoned-intelligence/

I used to read a lot for pleasure.

Then I started reading PB instead.

Yeah, I'm exactly the same. But I feel ambivalent about it. I enjoy the snappy points on PB and the way the arguments develop with many informed contributions but I can't help lamenting how long it is since I read a novel from beginning to end. I seem to be losing the ability to simply be absorbed in a different world and I miss it.

Same. I do audiobooks now. They are immersive and enjoyable but they don't quite 'stick' like trad books used to with me. I think I could get back into books but it would take an effort. Reading in that way has come to feel a bit clunky. It's a shame. I used to devour stuff and time would fly.

It helps if you have regular long train journeys, and/or have lunch in a place that hasn't got wifi. I have both and the last library book I read for pleasure was "The Regicide Report". But it is getting difficult

Our elites now read less than the average member of the population and it shows.

'Britain’s elites no longer look like they did in the 1950s: droopy-moustached old white blokes with a grouse moor somewhere in their background. They are younger, more urban, more multi-ethnic, make rather than inherit their money. That’s all, we may think, to the good. But as The Telegraph’s Great British Class Study discovers, they are less likely than any other sector of society to spend their spare time reading.

For fewer than one in three members of the new “Elite” read for pleasure, according to polling conducted by the opinion-research firm Public First. Too busy with socials, or crypto, or the gym. By contrast, 45 per cent of the “Left Behind” group – whose members typically score the least economic and cultural points in the new system – are readers, as are 60 per cent of the typically older, more financially stable “Quietly Comfortable” class.'
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/news/britains-elites-have-abandoned-intelligence/

I used to read a lot for pleasure.

Then I started reading PB instead.

Yeah, I'm exactly the same. But I feel ambivalent about it. I enjoy the snappy points on PB and the way the arguments develop with many informed contributions but I can't help lamenting how long it is since I read a novel from beginning to end. I seem to be losing the ability to simply be absorbed in a different world and I miss it.

I'm the same.
However I started reading Ian McEwan's latest novel, What We Can Know, a few days ago and became totally engrossed in it. Finished it yesterday. Fantastic. First novel I've read in years.

Our elites now read less than the average member of the population and it shows.

'Britain’s elites no longer look like they did in the 1950s: droopy-moustached old white blokes with a grouse moor somewhere in their background. They are younger, more urban, more multi-ethnic, make rather than inherit their money. That’s all, we may think, to the good. But as The Telegraph’s Great British Class Study discovers, they are less likely than any other sector of society to spend their spare time reading.

For fewer than one in three members of the new “Elite” read for pleasure, according to polling conducted by the opinion-research firm Public First. Too busy with socials, or crypto, or the gym. By contrast, 45 per cent of the “Left Behind” group – whose members typically score the least economic and cultural points in the new system – are readers, as are 60 per cent of the typically older, more financially stable “Quietly Comfortable” class.'
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/news/britains-elites-have-abandoned-intelligence/

I used to read a lot for pleasure.

Then I started reading PB instead.

Yeah, I'm exactly the same. But I feel ambivalent about it. I enjoy the snappy points on PB and the way the arguments develop with many informed contributions but I can't help lamenting how long it is since I read a novel from beginning to end. I seem to be losing the ability to simply be absorbed in a different world and I miss it.

Same. I do audiobooks now. They are immersive and enjoyable but they don't quite 'stick' like trad books used to with me. I think I could get back into books but it would take an effort. Reading in that way has come to feel a bit clunky. It's a shame. I used to devour stuff and time would fly.

You might enjoy "The Death of Reading" by James Marriott, who has written often on this theme

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct71cy (26 mins)