The Guardian 17 August, 2025 by Nick Evershed

The demise of men reading books has, once again, been greatly exaggerated.

A recent ABC article about Australians’ reading habits claimed “Australians, especially men, are reading less than ever before” and “the data showed females, on average, were reading more than males across all age groups”.

This coverage was picked up by an opinion piece in the Age, with the headline “Young men have stopped reading books – and these are the reasons why”, which also said “the percentage of men who would pick up any book at all is very small”.

So have men actually stopped reading? Has there been a decline in reading overall? And how do reading rates compare between males and females?

Read more here.