How to read more than four books in 2026

Blazing Reader,

According to Gitnux the median number of books read by Americans last year was... four.

A quarter of the population didn't even read a single book.

“'I don’t have time to read' has become perhaps the most common excuse for abandoned books," writes author Tomer Rozenberg. "Yet interestingly, studies show that Americans spend an average of 3 hours and 43 minutes on their phones daily. The issue isn’t necessarily a lack of time, but rather how we choose to allocate our limited attention."

In his article, Why We Put Books Down and How to Pick Them Back Up, Rozenberg explains:

"Let’s face it—we’re living in an age of unprecedented digital distraction. Our phones ping with notifications, our streaming services auto-play the next episode, and our social media feeds refresh endlessly. Each of these moments offers a small dopamine hit that books, with their slower-burning satisfaction, struggle to compete with."

So do books stand a chance? How can they compete? 

According to Rozenberg, "books aren’t just competing for attention in a crowded marketplace of entertainment options. They’re offering something fundamentally different: not distraction, but presence; not escape, but engagement; not passive consumption, but active co-creation between author and reader."

Rozenberg's article explains why reading online is causing us to lose the ability to engage in deep, sustained reading and gives many practical tips to rekindle a love for the "slow-burning satisfaction" of an engaging book. 

You can read Why We Put Books Down and How to Pick Them Back Up at: https://tomer-rozenberg.com/2025/03/27/why-we-put-books-down-and-how-to-pick-them-back-up/

See if you can beat the median and discover how much you enjoy reading more than four books in 2026.

—John C.A. Manley

P.S. If you're looking for some engaging reads for 2026, may I recommend (available in print, ebook and audiobook formats): https://blazingpinecone.com/books/

John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona, All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of philosophical fiction that are "so completely engaging that you find yourself alternately laughing, gasping, hanging on for dear life." Get free samples of his stories by becoming a Blazing Pine Cone email subscriber.