Many Americans Read 0 Books in 2025. A New Reading Challenge Wants to Change That (Exclusive)
- - Many Americans Read 0 Books in 2025. A New Reading Challenge Wants to Change That (Exclusive)
Katie Hill, Lizz SchumerJanuary 21, 2026 at 4:20 AM
0
Getty
According to new data, 40% of Americans read zero books in 2025
Launching Wednesday, Jan. 21, ThriftBooks introduces the 500 Billion Page Challenge to help Americans fall back in love with reading
Behavioral scientist Jon Levy has tips for how to get started and stick to it
If you read at least one book in 2025, you did better than the 40% of Americans who read zero — a statistic that also applies to reading habits in 2024 and 2023. Safe to say, Americans have been lacking in the page-turning department.
A YouGov study on the state of reading in the United States found the median American only read two books last year, with six in 10 Americans saying they read at least one book in 2025. But in 2026, ThriftBooks is looking to change that. Launching on Wednesday, Jan. 21, ThriftBooks' 500 Billion Page Challenge has one goal: help America fall back in love with reading.
A decade ago, Americans collectively read 500 billion pages per year, a level of commitment ThriftBooks thinks the country can get back to. According to a study commissioned by Thriftbooks and conducted by Atomik Research, 87% of U.S. adults say a realistic goal is to read at least three pages per day, and if just 321 million Americans read those three pages, the nation would surpass 500 billion pages in a single year.
"Americans didn’t stop loving books — we just got distracted," says Thriftbooks Vice President of Marketing Barbara Hagen. "The 500 Billion Page Challenge is about helping people reignite their passion with reading in a way that fits real life."
A separate YouGov study also found the median American only read two books last year, with six in 10 Americans saying they read at least one book in 2025.
But finding time for that passion is the problem, even though 85% of U.S. adults say they find reading an attractive trait in a person, and 54% say that when they sit down to read a book, they always or often read for a longer period of time than they had planned.
Despite these encouraging stats, 57% say the hardest part of reading is getting started, with 34% saying the biggest barrier to reading daily is too many distractions, followed by lack of time (28%) and low motivation or interest (16%).
One way to get those pages turning is to let yourself read whatever strikes your fancy, says Levy in an exclusive statement shared with PEOPLE. "Don't fall into the trap of thinking reading has to be highbrow. You have permission to read whatever you enjoy — manga, comics, romance, YA, cookbooks, memoirs, poetry," he explains. "It all builds a healthy habit."
He suggests creating a “no-shame shelf” with books you genuinely want to read and choosing the easiest format for you to start: graphic novels, books with short chapters, short stories, whatever strikes your fancy.
"If you enjoy it, your brain will come back to it — and when your brain comes back, you read more," Levy adds. "That’s the point."
And Thriftbooks also has tools to help readers stay on track. Readers who sign up for the challenge can set goals and participate in monthly themes and mini-challenges to earn rewards and exclusive swag.
— sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
"This isn’t about guilt or giving up screens forever," says Hagen. "It’s about rediscovering what reading gives us that nothing else does. We lost something valuable in those pages, so let’s get them back, one page at a time."
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
