University: The Death of Reading for Pleasure

I’ve had the same conversation with a few of my friends over the last few years, none of us can read like we used to. In 2023, I read 20 books plus 5 texts for my English Literature A-Level, in 2024 I managed 22. Last year I managed 19, but so far this year I’ve only read 9 books and I think hitting over 15 will be a struggle. 

I was the cliché ‘precocious reader’ as a child, getting through books in one sitting and cleaning out my local library. I’m a fast reader, and it’s always been my favourite hobby. I haven’t ‘gone off’ reading and I’ve never had a longer list of books I want to read, but right now I’m doing anything but. 

I’m about to start the third year of my History degree, and that is what’s killed my ability to read for pleasure. I have between 100 and 250 pages of intense history reading per seminar, which means I read roughly the equivalent of an academic book on a normal week. On top of that, my assignments all need 8-12 academic sources, so reading for an essay ramps my pages read to the thousands. If you’ve done a humanities degree at uni, you’ll remember that fatigued walk or bus ride back to your accommodation while your eyes try to process the words they’ve seen. It’s probably not surprising that I don’t subject my eyes to any more reading after I’ve had my tea.

In general, uni is a much busier time than 6th Form was. Broadly, I studied and I went home so there seemed to be a lot more time in the day for reading. At uni, I run my student newspaper and write for the fabulous Luna magazine, I got to a quiz every week, and just generally spend the spare time I have seeing friends. One of the biggest reasons I no longer find the time to read is because I commute on foot, and drive home rather than taking the 6+ hour train. I actually miss living in the further away accommodation I had in first year as it gave me an hour or so to read my book. I’ve had to commute to my summer internship in the car as I had no public transport options, which was a real shame as I missed out on a good 6 hours a week where I could have been reading. I don’t think I could drive while listening to audiobooks as I’m worried about keeping my concentration on the road. 

Where then, is our time to read at uni? Shockingly for a History student, I absolutely love history and have dozens of history books that aren’t relevant to my modules that I want to read for pleasure. That’s completely off the menu for me, but even fiction is now a struggle. I feel my eyes shutting and my mind wandering, so more often than not I resort to putting on a film or doing my junk journal as they serve as the mental break I’m so desperately craving. For a long time I did think it was a me problem, but when my best friend Gabrielle (the most avid reader I know) admitted that even she hadn’t finished a book in weeks I knew I wasn’t alone. The anti reading bug isn’t exclusive to history, as my friends studying French, Politics and Human Geography have all reported the same thing. 

Perhaps this is a sign that uni takes things too far. An inability to read for pleasure is a sign of a lot of stress being put on us students. I’m never going to read at the same rate I did in my blissful summer between A-Levels and Uni again, but I seriously hope this phase of life doesn’t do some sort of irreparable damage to my love of reading. I feel like I’ve not read a proper ‘good book’ since January (when I was off uni), but I’m trying very hard to make sure I persevere with reading. When I go back to uni in September, I want to try and prioritise finding an hour or two in the week to take myself off to somewhere quiet to actually read. I’m realistic as I know that won’t stick when my deadlines are coming thick and fast, but I think it’s important to actually find some time to read. 

If you’ve had a similar experience at university, trust me when I say you’re not alone. Our time to read like a precocious child will come again one day.

Written by, Eleanor Patamia