Reading

A cafe in Amsterdam is filled with people on a Sunday afternoon, but there’s not a laptop or cellphone in sight. Those meeting are part of the Offline Club, where a Wi-Fi signal is not needed, whose members check their electronics at the door, grab a coffee and a seat, and pretend like it’s the '90s.

Each meeting starts off with quiet time for reading, crafting, or just relaxing with your beverage. Then it becomes social for people who want to engage with others.

Co-founder of the club, Ilya Kneppelhout said, “The Offline Club is a way for people to detox from their rushed daily lives and ever-connected lives with notifications. And it is people who are unhappy with their social media usage or their phone usage and screen time and want to decrease that and get back to real connection."

It’s a simple concept, but participants say they really look forward to it. “You get to be very present in a way you didn’t come in realizing,” one member said. Kneppelhout added, “It felt a bit like traveling in time and made me feel nostalgic about the way bars and cafes used to be. Because nowadays, those are places we’re only going to with friends and people we already know and spend time doing digital things like work.”

The founders say they think the concept would work well in other cities, too. “We’re getting together with a franchising concept and we hope to have offline detox events in the entire world for people to reconnect.”

A 2025 report from the American Bible Society suggests that Bible use is rising—especially among young adults who, until recently, were among the least likely to open a Bible at all.

According to State of the Bible: USA 2025, the percentage of U.S. adults who read the Bible outside of church at least three times a year increased from 38% to 41% in the last year. That’s roughly 10 million more adults engaging with Scripture—marking the first increase in Bible use since 2021.

The sharpest rise appears among millennials, where reported Bible use jumped by 29% in a single year. Gen Z also showed noticeable movement. It’s a striking turnaround, especially considering that both groups have typically lagged behind older generations in religious activity. But the numbers may not be as clear-cut as they seem.

The study also found that Scripture engagement—a metric that factors in not just Bible reading, but how much Scripture influences someone’s choices, relationships, and worldview—rose from 11% to 15% among Gen Z, and from 12% to 17% among millennials.

The study defines Scripture engagement broadly, factoring in a range of self-reported behaviors and attitudes. It also relies on a survey sample of just 2,656 adults—a relatively small group to draw sweeping generational conclusions from, especially when measuring a spike as large as 29%.

Still, even if the numbers are more hopeful than definitive, they point to a growing spiritual curiosity among younger Americans. You can read the full report here.

When researchers for the American Bible Society’s annual State of the Bible report saw 2022’s survey statistics, they found it hard to believe the results. The data said roughly 26 million people had mostly or completely stopped reading the Bible in the last year.

“We reviewed our calculations. We double-checked our math and ran the numbers again … and again,” John Plake, lead researcher for the American Bible Society, wrote in the 2022 report. “What we discovered was startling, disheartening, and disruptive.”

In 2021, about 50 percent of Americans said they read the Bible on their own at least three or four times per year. That percentage had stayed more or less steady since 2011.

But in 2022, it dropped 11 points. Now only 39 percent say they read the Bible multiple times per year or more. It is the steepest, sharpest decline on record.

According to the 12th annual State of the Bible report, it wasn’t just the occasional Scripture readers who didn’t pick up their Bibles as much in 2022 either. More than 13 million of the most engaged Bible readers—measured by frequency, feelings of connection to God, and impact on day-to-day decisions—said they read God’s Word less.

Currently, only 10 percent of Americans report daily Bible reading.

Do you have a habit of picking up books that you never quite get around to reading? If this sounds like you, you might be unwittingly engaging in tsundoku - a Japanese term used to describe a person who owns a lot of unread literature.

Proffesor Andrew Gerstle of the University of London explains the term might be older than you think. It can be found in print as early as 1879. The word "doku" is a verb meaning "reading" and "tsun" means "to pile up.” So, when put together, "tsundoku" has the meaning of buying reading material and piling it up.

Does it only work for books? You might not be surprised to know some people have applied the term to other aspects of their lives. In a popular post on Reddit people discussed how this term could explain their relationship with films, television shows, and even clothing. One of the most popular interpretations concerned video games, with various people referencing their "vast, untouched software libraries" on game distribution platforms like Steam.

Possible Preaching Angle:

How many of us find ourselves with the tsundoku habit of buying Christian books or new versions of the Bibles but never reading them? Or going to Christian seminars, taking copious notes, but never referring to them again? Let’s be “doers of the Word and not hearers only!” (Jam. 1:22).

The King James Version of the Bible has been a blessing through the years to countless numbers of people, in many different ways. As 2 Timothy 3:16-17 tells us, the inspired word of God has “thoroughly equipped” the people of God “for every good work and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness.” Psalm 119:105 also reminds us that God's Word “is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”

At a Seminar held in Sri Lanka for students of Journalism a few years ago, Senior Indian Journalist and Politician, M. J. Akbar, highlighted yet another meaningful benefit of the King James Version of the Bible. In his address to aspiring journalists, Mr. Akbar had initially highlighted an urgent need to raise the standards of English writing in print journalism.

Thereafter, he had advised the aspiring journalists to read the King James Version of the Bible, to improve their English. He said, “The basic structure of the English language can be found in the King James Version of the Bible and thus it can be called 'the holy book' for all the journalists.”

So, if you need to improve your English writing skills, a good way to do so would be to read the King James Version of the Bible.

Bible reading dropped dramatically in 2022. It is unclear why. Roughly 50 percent of American adults reported opening Scripture at least three times a year every year from 2011 to 2021, according to American Bible Society surveys. Then, in 2022, that number declined to 39 percent.

That means that amid record inflation, threats of nuclear war in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and ongoing debates about the state of democracy, there were about 26 million Americans who stopped reading the Bible.

More than half of Americans say they wish they read the Bible or read it more, however, creating an opportunity for Christians to invite their neighbors to deeper engagement with God’s Word. Younger people, in particular, say they are drawn to Bible reading plans and Bible studies that look at whole chapters or complete stories.

Of the 39% of Bible readers:

27% Read the Bible in print

19% Read the Bible on an app

18% Read the Bible online

11% Listen to the Bible on a podcast

55-year-old New Jersey school bus driver Herman Cruse noticed that a kindergartner seemed a little sad and out of sorts during one morning ride to Middle Township Elementary. When Cruse asked the kindergartner what was wrong, the boy explained that he couldn’t complete his reading assignment because his parents were busy with his four siblings at home to help him practice reading.

Cruse said an idea popped into his mind, since normally he just napped between his morning and afternoon routes. “I told him, ‘Listen, I have some free time, and if you don’t mind, I’d like to come to the school and read with you.’”

Cruse received permission from the six-year-old’s teacher, Alex Bakley, to show up at her kindergarten classroom the following week. When he walked in, the boy shouted, “Hey, that’s my bus driver!”

Cruse said, “We went into a quiet corner and began reading together, and it took on a life of its own. Then a second student wanted to read to me, then a third. All these kids were going to the teacher asking, ‘Can I read with Mr. Herman?’”

He and Bakley decided to call his reading circle “Mr. Herman’s Kids.” Bakley said, “He’s a bright light at our school who makes every child feel loved and heard—they’re all drawn to his energy.”

LaCotia Ruiz said her five-year-old son Kingsly is more excited about books since he started reading with Cruse. She said, “Kingsly had a rough time with reading at the beginning of the school year, but he’s doing much better because of this fun one-on-one time. In the morning he wakes up excited and says, ‘I’m going to read with Mr. Herman!’”

Cruse’s enthusiasm for his new role has caught on with his colleagues. “There’s now another bus driver who wants to help me out between his routes. What started out as a way to kill time has now blossomed into a way to make a difference in the heart of a child.”

To an outsider, the name Sam Bankman-Fried might seem like a pseudonym, too on-the-nose to be real. The 30-year-old entrepreneur and philanthropist, known by his initials SBF, became one of the youngest billionaires in the world after founding the cryptocurrency exchange FTX. In the 90s hip-hop parlance, one could say he made “bank, man.” But after FTX collapsed amidst solvency concerns and he lost approximately $16 billion in net worth, SBF now appears, rather appropriately, “fried.”

As proof of his lack of business savvy, Washington Post columnist Molly Roberts recently mentioned the fact that SBF once spurned the practice of reading books. Not certain books, but books, period. He said, “I would never read a book. I don’t want to say no book is ever worth reading, but I actually do believe something pretty close to that. ... If you wrote a book, you (failed), it should have been a six-paragraph blog post.”

Roberts says that such impatience is characteristic of his overall approach, a philosophy he identifies as “effective altruism.” This is defined as making as much money as possible, as quickly as possible, in order to give it all away. According to Roberts, SBF’s unwillingness to hoard the money is laudable, but he used it to justify a series of high-risk speculative bets that eventually proved to be his economic undoing.

Roberts explained:

SBF was also immersed in a type of effective altruism known as longtermism, where that ultimate outcome you’re seeking is hundreds of thousands or even millions of years away. So, instead of buying bed nets for children dying of malaria today, you’re trying to prevent the hypothetical next pandemic or the overheating of the earth. ... (This way of thinking is an) obsession with the future [that] disconnects you from the present.

Roberts concludes her analysis this way: “Why not scam a few bucks today to save a few billion lives in the 23rd century? That’s not just skipping to the end of the book—it’s skipping to the end of the entire series.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Those who spurn instruction and consideration in favor of efficiency and haste, cut themselves off from needed wisdom and hasten their own destruction.

Writing systems are thousands of years old and are found in ancient Sumer, China, and Egypt. But even in the most literate ancient societies only a small fraction of people ever learned to read, rarely more than 10 percent. So, when did people decide that everyone should learn to read?

The move toward mass literacy began in the 16th century with the belief that every person should read and interpret the Bible for themselves. This belief began to rapidly diffuse across Europe with the eruption of the Protestant Reformation. It was initiated in 1517 by Martin Luther’s delivery of his famous 95 theses. Protestants came to believe that children had to study the Bible for themselves to better know their God. In the wake of the spread of Protestantism, the literacy rates in Britain, Sweden, and the Netherlands rose. Motivated by eternal salvation, parents and leaders made sure the children learned to read.

Religious beliefs also helped spur the beginning of state-funded schooling. As early as 1524, Martin Luther emphasized the need for parents to ensure their children’s literacy and placed the responsibility for creating schools on secular governments. In the 16th century, reformer John Knox pressured the Scottish government to initiate free public education for all children. One of his reasons was that everyone should have the skills to study the Bible.

An article on Medium asks, "Want to know one habit ultra-successful people have in common? They read. A lot." Warren Buffett would read 600-1000 pages a day. Bill Gates reads 50 books a year. Mark Cuban reads three hours a day. When asked how he learned to build rockets, Elon Musk said, "I read books." But one thing that marks their reading is education. They don't read to be entertained; they read to be educated. "They believe that books are a gateway to learning and knowledge."

Possible Preaching Angle:

All of these people live crazy busy lives, yet they see the value in reading. How much more so for the Christian who can read the Word of God. If you want to make progress in the Christian life, do one thing: read the Word. Of course, that Word also tells us to do one more thing: obey the Word.

How much do you read on an average day? Recent research by Lifehack says that "an average social media user 'reads' 285 pieces of content daily, an estimated 54,000 words. If it is true, then we are reading a novel slightly longer than The Great Gatsby every day."

Nikkitha Bakshani, in The Morning News, takes a look at what she calls Binge Reading Disorder. Bakshani's estimate of the words we read every day is almost twice that of Lifehack's research. Bakshani says, "The typical American consumes more than 100,000 words a day, and remembers none of them. When everybody's reading, but nobody's smarter, what value has the word?" Do you remember the last thing you read?

Source:

Nikkitha Bakshani, “Binge Reading Disorder,” TheMorningNews.org (Accessed 10/26/20)

The World Bank, an international organization that provides loans to developing countries, considers informing public debate a part of its mission. With that goal in mind, every year the World Bank publishes hundreds of well-researched reports like "Why Don't Remittances Appear to Affect Growth?"

Shockingly, the World Bank ran a little self-assessment and discovered that almost no one is reading these fascinating-sounding reports. As a matter of fact, nearly one-third of the World Bank's 1,611 policy reports have never been downloaded, not even once. "As each report costs an average of $180,000 in terms of researchers' time and other expenses, a ballpark estimate of the amount of money spent researching and writing reports that did not merit a single download is $93 million."

Possible Preaching Angle:

That's a lot of time and money to communicate absolutely nothing beyond your own institutional walls. Sure hope the church isn't doing something similar.