Despite Reports, Reading Is Alive and Well

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This summer, an article came out in The Atlantic, titled “The End of Reading Is Here,” and it put forward statistics that seem to prove the persistent feeling that new technologies are the death knell of reading books. But, looking into the question, the staff writer Nathan Heller finds a more complicated picture, and he draws a different conclusion in “The New Age of Reading.” Heller talks with David Remnick about the surprising statistics on book sales and bookstores; the influence of BookTok on younger readers; and how the C.E.O. James Daunt turned around Barnes & Noble, a company that once looked bound for extinction.

Further reading:

• “Why ‘Book-Shaming’ Won’t Solve the Children’s Literacy Crisis,” by Jessica Winter
• “The Battle for Attention,” by Nathan Heller
• “The End of the English Major,” by Nathan Heller