This is from By Charlotte Wilkes at the ABC

Some fairly dodgy stats here trying to measure qualitative effects. Social media has destroyed reading for many and I’m not sure how popular non-fiction is for blokes these days. But one key reason is the feminisation of literature. Women write stories women want to read but women are more ecumenical as they will also read stories by men. The future of literature? Cook books.

Across the board, young men reading the least and older women reading the most.

Australia Reads, a book industry initiative, is calling for a national strategy that reminds people of the fun and comfort that reading can bring.

In the country Victorian town of Hamilton, nearly 300 kilometres west of Melbourne, a group of men meet in their local pub once a month to talk about the latest novel they are reading.

Farmer Jack Kennedy, who formed the Hamilton branch of the Tough Guy Book Club nearly five years ago, grew up feeling like it was not normal for men to read books.

“[Fiction] is a great way to build empathy in men, when they’re reading through someone else’s eyes,” Mr Kennedy said. “It’s a really important thing for men’s mental health.”

But according to data collected by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) that was published last year, Australians are reading less. That was especially true for men.

The population cohort that read the least was males aged 15–24, with only 10.1 per cent reading on any given day, according to the ABS.

While Gen Z teenage girls and young women were not far ahead, the data showed females, on average, were reading more than males across all age groups.

Nearly one in four Generation X females (23 per cent) participated in reading compared to about one in eight Generation X males (12 per cent).

Anna Burkey, president of book industry initiative Australia Reads, which aims to get more people reading, said part of the problem was boys and men did not see themselves reflected in the reading world. See feminisation of literature.

“If you see people around you regularly doing something, you want to do it,” Ms Burkey said.

“If you see fewer men and boys [reading] then you think to yourself, ‘Well, maybe that’s not for me because I do not see myself reflected’.”

According to Ms Burkey, 29 per cent of Australian senior school students did not read or listen to a book at all in the previous 12 months, a 7 per cent increase on a previous study.

“We’re not just seeing people not reading for themselves … we’re seeing people not reading to their children as much and that they are less likely to read to boys than to girls,” she said.

One-third of Australian students are failing to learn to read proficiently, at an estimated cost to the economy of $40 billion, according to a new study.

Write Jock Serong said while reading was a form of meditation and comfort, it could extend so much further to everyday life.

“[Not reading] means that we don’t see the patterns in things, we don’t see the human behaviours that keep repeating in politics and public life because we’re not doing the deep, slow thinking and books are vital to the deep, slow thinking.”

Ms Burkey said a 2015 study showed that people who read regularly were 58 per cent more empathetic, how does she know that? which she believed could have a “knock-on effect” for tolerance, social cohesion and democracy.

“Reading is proven to help you understand your place in the world, to walk in other people’s shoes,” she said.

“So reading allows us to have more focus and concentration and if you read regularly, you’re more likely to sleep better at night.”

“Reading for pleasure as a child is one of the biggest indicators of future success as an adult and spending time reading increases empathy, while helping us feel less anxious,” she said.