We are living in a unique period of British – World even – history. For the first time on record, schools, pubs, shops and businesses have all closed for months and we are all being forced to change the way we live our lives. As we spend almost all of our time at home, living life at a significantly slower pace, we would like to know: how has lockdown changed our reading habits?

We came up with a series of questions, about reading habits in lockdown, and sent them out to staff and our wider school family of students, parents and friends, via email and Twitter. The results were sometimes as expected, sometimes surprising but always fascinating:

Lockdown has affected many people’s reading habits so we asked if people had been reading more and from our survey, we found that 62.5% of people surveyed said yes, they were reading more during lockdown and 37.5% said no they were not reading more. Out of that 37.5% of people 18.75% said they were reading the same amount as they were prior to lockdown. We found 18.75% of the people surveyed said that they read before bed to help them sleep. Out of the people that said they read more during lockdown 37.5% doubled their normal reading time.

Lockdown has changed everybody’s lives: although these changes seem negative, one huge plus is that there is more time to enjoy activities you wouldn’t usually have time for.  Now people have time to read, it’s interesting to look at how different people like to enjoy a good story.  Although only one in 13 people asked have been using audio books, 23.1% have used Borrow Box to access free books. Borrow Box is an online library service that allows users to borrow books on their Kindles and other e-readers.

We were also interested in finding out how people’s reading habits have changed during lockdown, the results from our survey showed 64% felt their reading habits had changed with 43% reading significantly more. Many people have been reading different genres for example: “I’ve read non-fiction for pleasure for the first time in years,” said one person who was surveyed, another response was “I’m finding more time to read during the day and not just before bed. I’m also making time for more academic reading for work.”  We were intrigued  to find out that 28.5% of people surveyed stated that they were reading online (i.e. Twitter, Audiobooks or online articles/sites).

When we asked the public if they had been experimenting with different genres during the lockdown period, we got a very mixed response.  The majority of people said that they’d stuck to their usual styles of reading, but 38.5% informed us that they had indeed tried different genres. One person said that they find comfort in reading historical fiction to escape this confusing time, and two people have indulged in biographies. Another respondent told us that they’d started listening to audio books as a family, helping little ones to develop a love for reading.   

The final question which we asked about changing reading habits was about the style of books we choose to read, which can change depending on the circumstances at the time. So, we asked which books people would recommend whilst in lockdown. These were some of the answers we got: Many people recommended exciting and thrilling books such as The Hobbit by J. R. R Tolkien, Shadowsmith, The Nowhere Emporium and The Elsewhere Emporium, all of which are by Ross Mackenzie, and The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. Whereas, some people decided to choose books that would make them laugh, such as the Thursday Next novels by Jasper Fforde and the St Mary’s series by Jodi Taylor.  People choose these books as a means of ‘escape’ from the news of the current pandemic, which can be depressing. However, a few people decided to read books that seemed relevant to the situation or to help them cope with what is going on around us. Some of these books include La Peste by Albert Camus, Calm by Fearne Cotton and The Boy at the Back of the Class by Onjali Q Rauf.

At this time, I personally recommend reading books that are part of a big series like Harry Potter by J.K Rowling or The Darren Shan Saga by Darren Shan because I feel you will never get bored with these books.

One thing that has come out of our research is very interesting and nice to know: when we face difficult and trying times, more of us that ever, turn to books to help us to get through them.

With grateful thanks to Isabel and Lewis Y7 and Ella Y8 from  Millfield Science and Performing Arts College, Thornton Cleveleys for writing and researching this blog.  Grateful thanks too to Mel Bleakley for her support.