Books Resist Digital Domination

‘Does anyone actually read anymore?” That’s what a friend wondered when I asked how her next book was going. She doesn’t plan to write another, and she has published 13 nonfiction bestsellers.

Her question isn’t unwarranted amid the streaming age’s tsunami of online distractions. Yet the publishing industry’s health in the face of endless podcasts, movies and series is cause for optimism.

At the London Book Fair in mid-April, publishers sounded galvanized, not beleaguered. Yes, the “pandemic party” that was a bonanza for many publishers is over, HarperCollins president Brian Murray told the crowd. But while people are no longer stuck at home with money to spend and nowhere to go, they haven’t given up reading—or surrendered their leisure time entirely to the passive absorption of online content.

Reading a long work of fiction or nonfiction—an ebook, an audiobook or an actual volume with paper pages—feels more like work than streaming a series or listening to a podcast. And that effort has rewards, ushering readers into worlds created by Cormac McCarthy, Marcel Proust, Hilary Mantel and others.

Except for audiobooks—which apparently are thriving—reading doesn’t much lend itself to multitasking. By contrast, it’s easy enough to allot a sliver of attention to a podcast while running errands or to stream a series in the background while working out, knowing you might take in about half the show.

But the barrage of easy alternatives hasn’t done reading in. Fears that we risk defaulting into intellectual couch potatoes are nothing new. There has been hand wringing about the lowest common denominator and shrinking attention spans ever since televisions, later affectionately nicknamed idiot boxes, lumbered into American living rooms about 80 years ago. But people didn’t stop reading books, even as black-and-white blossomed into color and high definition, channels proliferated,- and YouTube came along. Books endured, and not just because of the inimitable appeal of holding a beautifully bound volume, redolent of glue and ink, and getting lost in it. Books have adapted from hardcovers and paperbacks. Like online content, they are ubiquitous—on phones, tablets and computers—and the spell of their words is undiminished by a small screen.

To be sure, streaming is an inescapable rival. Doctors’ waiting rooms, airports, bars and other public places have blaring displays. Stroll down the aisle of almost any plane and the glowing squares propped on passengers’ tray tables are more likely to be showing a Marvel Cinematic Universe extravaganza than chapter 12 of “The Mill on the Floss.”

Reading is a commitment, and as my author friend would attest, writing is even more so. Most writing is solitary and painstaking. But both efforts are worthwhile. Books pay dividends—memorable characters and scenes built of words—unlike those of any podcast, film or series.

Surely there is room in life for both “The Great British Baking Show” and “The Brothers Karamazov.” It’s just a matter of time.

Ms. Cronin is an associate editorial features editor at the Journal.