Will reading be a short anomaly in human history? That’s a question asked by Rose Horowitch in her Atlantic article “The End of Reading is Here.” It is a bit of a downer, especially for people who make it a point to read from a paper book every day.

I’ve written before about how few books get read in the United States. About half of U.S. citizens did not finish a book last year. I may be missing out by not being on Tik Tok or Instagram, yet the hours I spend with a book are restful regardless of the topic. If I’m lucky, time spent with books inspires me. What do I remember about all the reading I have done since starting this blog? Not as much as I hoped.

I posted books read at the Read Recently tab and have since 2011. I also used Goodreads since 2012 to track my daily reading. During the last few years, I read a book per week on average. If my eyesight were to fail, or I suffered some malady, I might read less. Yet isn’t our reading retention and inspiration important to the process?

In 2025, I logged reading 71 books. The good news is I remember at least half of them. The authors create a mosaic tile frame in which I shower myself with ideas. It both refreshes and exhausts me.

A lot of names are familiar: Bill Gates, Jimmy Carter, Jose Andres, Art Cullen, Adrienne Rich, Joan Didion, and others are stars in a firmament of my own making. Others, like Geraldine DeRuiter, Chris Hayes, Rick Rubin, Rebecca Romney, Tim Berners-Lee, and Katharine Hayhoe taught me something during their brief time in my orbit. I don’t recall much of the poetry, yet to me, poetry is the equivalent of breathing. It remains important to living each moment as best we can. The half I don’t remember? They served as a cyclorama of life without specific influence.

I understand the premise of Horowitch’s article, that society is doing things besides reading. On the day reading becomes obsolete in modern society, we will lose part of us that was important for so long. Reading remains important… at least for now.

Short version: How does one do a Tik Tok of Brothers Karamazov? You don’t. Simply pick up the book and read it.