Read, everyone

In May and June, first communions and professions of faith are in full swing in the parishes. A good opportunity to offer their first Bible to the children concerned. However, even when chosen carefully, the latter will often end up gathering dust on a shelf. Too many pages, too many complicated words… “Cobblestones” are no longer popular, notes from experience Isabelle Fuchs, French teacher in the Vosges (read our survey) . The figures prove him right: young people now spend ten times more time on screens than leafing through printed works, reports the latest survey by the National Book Center, made public on April 14.

To say that “young people don’t read” is, however, a bit short. On their smartphones, teenagers check their messages all day long! If community use resists, “leisure” reading is struggling. A third of 16-19 year olds never practice it, according to the same survey. Lack of time? Or lack of the necessary interpersonal skills? Because reading is much more than a hobby. Scrolling through content chasing each other on a screen certainly requires nimble fingers, but requires little attention. 67% of 16-19 year olds see no contradiction in simultaneously browsing a screen and a novel! Learning to enjoy slowness and introspection cannot be improvised: the bar is high when you really want to read.

Literature, pleaded Pope Francis who taught it, allows us to acquire “a breadth of perspective which broadens our humanity”. As long as we help them in this discovery, young readers do not hesitate to take the plunge. Reading breaks in schools, meeting with writers (read our report)festivals, series or films reviving interest in the heroes of yesterday, from the Count of Monte Cristo to Arsène Lupin: there is no shortage of mediations. It is the appetite, unfortunately, that is lacking. More than half of French people no longer feel the desire to enter a library, notes an Ifop study for the Art Explora foundation, also published at the beginning of April.

It is therefore up to us, the “old-fashioned” readers, to dare to recall this obvious fact: reading is not a duty, but a pleasure to be enjoyed, a haven of peace, a secure base in a world that has become largely illegible. Sorting out the essential from the accessories, sharing emotions, discerning the impulses of the soul: words are needed for that. You know this well, dear readers, you who, every week, experience this adventure alongside us.