A recent Guardian article caught my eye. Its headline is delightfully unexpected: “Reading is so sexy”: Gen Z turns to physical books and libraries.”
For years we’ve been told that screens would replace books, that digital entertainment would crowd out reading, and that younger generations simply weren’t interested in literary culture. Yet the article describes something quite different: Young people are buying physical books, joining libraries, attending book clubs, and looking for places where reading can become a shared experience rather than a solitary one.
What struck me most was not the return to books themselves. It was the return to community.
Many of the young people interviewed described reading as a way to connect with others. They weren’t merely consuming content. They were looking for conversation, friendship, belonging, and meaningful interaction. In an age when so much communication is simply consumed, people are rediscovering the pleasure of gathering around a text and talking about it together.
This is one reason Shakespeare reading groups continue to surprise me. Many assume that Shakespeare groups are mainly for retirees. Certainly, some of us have accumulated a few decades of experience. But in recent years I’ve seen participants from a wide range of ages and backgrounds. Some come because they love literature. Some are lifelong learners. Some are simply looking for intelligent conversation. Others are looking for community.
What they discover is that reading Shakespeare aloud together is fundamentally different from studying Shakespeare alone. The plays become social events. People laugh together, puzzle over difficult passages together, disagree about characters together, and gradually form friendships through the shared experience of exploring the text.
In many ways, this is not a new phenomenon. For centuries, Shakespeare was commonly read aloud in homes, clubs, and informal gatherings. Reading groups were often social occasions as much as literary ones. What may seem innovative today is actually a return to an older tradition.
The Guardian article suggests that younger generations are just as hungry for authentic, face-to-face—or at least person-to-person—connection as seniors. They are discovering that books can provide more than information or entertainment. Books can provide community.
Shakespeare reading groups do exactly that.
The pleasure is not merely in reading the play. It is in hearing other voices, encountering other perspectives, and sharing the experience with fellow readers. The text becomes a meeting place.
Perhaps that helps explain why these groups continue to thrive. They satisfy two very human needs at once: the desire to engage with great ideas and the desire to engage with other people. It turns out that neither need has gone out of fashion.