Do young people still read for fun?

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The idea that "the kids just don't read anymore" is a tale as old as time. And, it is something that Elizabeth decided to investigate head-on in her role as an academic librarian. The results of the research study she designed and ran, interviewing just under 100 university students in the U.S. and the U.K., were published a few months ago and we talk about them in this episode.

Spoiler alert: young people (even when they're in college and even during the semester) do still read for fun! We get into the details of the study results and talk about what they read, how much they read, how they find new books, what they want from their reading lives, how they see themselves as readers, and more.

We also figure out that a conversation we had in 2019 about this study design was actually the seed that led to us starting this podcast! It's a very full-circle moment <3
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Books we're reading in this episode:

Main Character Energy by Jamie Varon
The Golden Spoon by Jessa Maxwell
Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
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Sources:

Brookbank, E. 2023. “It makes you feel like more of a person:” The leisure reading habits of university students in the US and UK and how academic libraries can support them, College & Undergraduate Libraries, 30:3, 53-94, DOI: 10.1080/10691316.2023.2261918 

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Intro and outro music: "The Chase," by Aves.

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Do you have thoughts, questions, or ideas for future episodes? Email us at [email protected]. To learn more about the podcast, visit our website at allbooksaloudpod.com.

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