Gen Zers and millennials are still big fans of books – even if they don’t call themselves ‘readers’

& Adobe Stock Photo by Kathi Inman Berens, Portland State University and Rachel Noorda, Portland State University The Conversation, CC BY Identifying with an activity is different from actually doing it. For example, 49% of Americans play video games, but only 10% identify as gamers. According to a recent survey we conducted, there’s also a small gap between reading activity and identity for younger readers: 61% of Generation Z and millennials have read a print book, e-book or audiobook in the past 12 months, but only 57% identify as readers. And yet there was a puzzling aspect of our results: The 43% of Gen Z and millennials who didn’t identify as readers actually said they read more print books per month than Gen Z and millennials overall. In other words, young people who don’t identify as readers are reading books at a higher rate than their generational cohorts as a whole. Why? Our best guess is that “reader” is an identity, not a behavior. And that identity is buttressed by involvement in book clubs, engagement with social media communities such as Booktok and Bookstagram, and access to libraries and bookstores. Some Gen Zers and millennials might not identify as readers...