What Do Millennials Struggle With When It Comes to Reading?

Millennials were supposed to be the generation that never put down a book. Growing up with Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, and Twilight, many assumed they’d grow into lifelong readers. But here in 2026, the data tells a different story. A 2025 Pew Research study found that millennials (born 1981-1996) read fewer than three books a year on average-down from five in 2010. That’s not because they’re lazy or uninterested. It’s because the world changed around them, and reading didn’t keep up.

They’re Not Lazy-They’re Overloaded

Think about your average millennial’s day. They wake up to a phone buzzing with Slack messages, Instagram reels, TikTok trends, and email alerts. By 9 a.m., they’ve already scrolled through more content than a 1990s reader saw in a week. Then comes work-often remote, always on Zoom, always multitasking. Lunch? A 10-minute break while scrolling through Reddit. Dinner? A quick bite while watching a Netflix series. By bedtime, their brain is full.

Reading a novel requires focus. Not just for 10 minutes, but for 30, 60, 90 minutes at a stretch. That’s not a skill most millennials have had time to practice. A 2024 University of Bristol study tracked digital behavior across 1,200 adults aged 25-40 and found that 78% of them could no longer sustain attention for more than 22 minutes without switching tasks. That’s not a personal failing-it’s a survival adaptation.

Books Feel Like a Luxury They Can’t Afford

Let’s be real: books are expensive. A hardcover novel costs £18.99. A Kindle version? £9.99. But even that’s a stretch when rent eats 40% of your income, student debt still hangs over your head, and groceries cost more than they did in 2019. When you’ve got £20 to spend, do you buy a book-or do you buy groceries, pay a bill, or treat yourself to a coffee that doesn’t come from a vending machine?

And let’s not forget libraries. Many public libraries in the UK have cut hours or closed branches since 2020. Bristol’s central library, once a hub for young readers, now opens only four days a week. Without easy access, books become a privilege, not a habit.

They’ve Been Sold a Lie About What Reading Should Look Like

Social media made reading look like a performance. Instagram bookstagrammers post flawless photos of coffee, candles, and leather-bound copies of Atomic Habits. TikTok trends tell you to read 50 books a year or you’re “falling behind.” These aren’t encouraging-they’re intimidating. Most millennials don’t want to be a book influencer. They just want to read something that makes them feel less alone.

But the pressure to read “the right books” has backfired. When reading becomes about status, not joy, people walk away. A 2025 survey by the Reading Agency found that 63% of millennials who stopped reading said they felt “judged” for not reading classics or bestsellers. They didn’t quit because they didn’t like stories. They quit because they felt like they weren’t allowed to like the wrong ones.

What They Actually Want to Read

Here’s the twist: millennials still love stories. They just don’t always want them in print. Podcasts, audiobooks, serialized fiction on apps like Wattpad and Substack, even long-form Twitter threads-they’re consuming narratives, just differently.

Take the rise of “microfiction.” Short stories under 1,000 words, often published in daily email newsletters, have seen a 200% increase in millennial readers since 2022. Platforms like Byline Times and The Moth now host weekly live storytelling events that sell out in minutes. These aren’t traditional books-but they’re reading. They’re emotional, immediate, and designed for attention spans that have been stretched thin.

And genre fiction? It’s thriving. Romance, horror, speculative fiction, and cozy mysteries are seeing record sales among millennials. Why? Because they’re not trying to “improve” themselves. They’re trying to escape. A 2026 report from Nielsen BookScan showed that cozy mystery sales jumped 41% in the UK last year-with 72% of buyers aged 27-39.

It’s Not About Reading Less-It’s About Reading Differently

The myth that millennials are “reading less” ignores the fact that they’re reading more than ever-just not in the way older generations expect. A 2025 study from Oxford’s Centre for Digital Culture found that 89% of millennials consume narrative content daily. That includes:

• 37% who listen to audiobooks while commuting
• 52% who read serialized fiction on their phones
• 41% who join online book clubs via Discord or WhatsApp
• 68% who watch book-based TV shows and then seek out the source material

They’re not abandoning stories. They’re redefining them. The problem isn’t their attention span-it’s the assumption that reading must look like sitting still with a physical book under a lamp.

What’s Missing? A Culture That Meets Them Where They Are

Libraries, publishers, and authors need to stop trying to get millennials back to 1990s reading habits. Instead, they need to meet them where they are: on their phones, in their cars, during lunch breaks, through voice assistants.

Imagine a public library that sends out a weekly 5-minute audio story via text message. Or a bookstore that partners with Spotify to create playlists for every novel. Or a publisher that releases the first chapter of a new book as a free interactive comic strip on Instagram.

These aren’t gimmicks. They’re adaptations. And they work. In 2025, a pilot program in Manchester called “Read on the Go” sent out 100-word story snippets via SMS three times a week. Over 80,000 millennials signed up. Six months later, 31% of them had bought a full-length book.

It’s Not Too Late

Millennials didn’t stop reading because they lost interest. They stopped because the system didn’t change with them. But change is happening. More authors are writing shorter, serialized stories. More publishers are releasing audiobook-first titles. More readers are forming communities around books they actually enjoy-not books they think they should read.

The next generation of readers isn’t disappearing. They’re just waiting for the world to catch up.