EXERCISE YOUR MIND

As book clubs and fiction surge in popularity, experts explain why reading may offer more than just escapism

Research suggests men are reading less than women. This should hardly come as a surprise. Data from YouGov shows that 66% of women have read a book in the past year, compared with just 53% of men. Of those who do read, men are 17% less likely to read fiction, leaning, instead, towards non-fiction self-optimisation titles that ostensibly offer more bang for your buck; but in doing so, might be missing out on more than the excitement of a good page-turner.

While statistics indicate that men are reading less, cultural trends point to signs of renewed interest in reading for enjoyment rather than purely self-improvement. While The Daily Stoic, Atomic Habits and Deep Work have previously dominated the book charts, recently, BookTok communities have been the catalyst for men’s book clubs – and fiction is taking centre stage.

Former pro rugby player and author Ben Mercer, who founded The Boys Book Club, can attest to this. ‘There’s a massive appetite for men to read more fiction.’ His book club introduces a new book to read every few weeks and the response online has been overwhelmingly positive. ‘There are other guys making content online around reading, outside the typical tech bro syllabus,’ he says.

Slow dopamine

The online reading movement may be more than just a trend, it could signify a behaviour change from consuming dopamine-spiking short-form social media content, to slower dopamine release stimuli such as physical books. According to neuroscientist Nicole Vignola, reading engages the brain in a fundamentally different way to the fast, high-reward loops of social media. She explains that reading ‘trains a part of our brain that helps us stay focused on one task’ and avoids the ‘volatile peaks and troughs’ associated with short-form content.