It appears ‘the lockdown effect’ on reading has not lasted, which seems a pity. At least among adults in the UK, if the most recent survey can be trusted. A new Reading Agency report, following their survey of 2,000 over-16s in the UK, found…

* In younger people, 24% of 16-24s tell the survey teams they have “never been regular readers”.

* 50% of all UK over-16s now read regularly for pleasure, down from 58% in 2015.

* 15% of UK adults have never read regularly for pleasure, an 88% increase since 2015.

Substantial changes then, especially in “reading for pleasure”, which are perhaps partly due to many older people passing away during Covid. Perhaps also partly because some of the “representative consumers” here surveyed may not have been born in the UK (the survey methodology is not at all clear, even in the PDF), which would then make comparison with older surveys problematic. The earlier survey was of “randomly selected British adults”, which seems to me likely to be a different baseline from a market research body’s set of “representative consumers” in the UK.

And, as always, one would want to know if unabridged audiobooks are considered to be “reading”. Or are the surveys only asking about print? Perhaps there has just been, among some, a shift to a new format?

Another factor is that many books have become so damned expensive, and postage likewise (Amazon free delivery, excepted). A paperback that was £15 before lockdown will now likely be £30.