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Here’s to the Niche Hobbyists

ByKelly Keller

In case you missed the hubbub (bookish people aren’t very loud), there was a big article from The Atlantic last month (gift link) all about how people don’t read anymore. Most young adults don’t read at all; their chosen intake is short-form videos. If you are one of the ones who does still read, your books are probably more simply written than they used to be. People who read many books are still reading fewer than they used to. This is true of me; is it true of you?

Probably the bleakest illustration given over the course of this article was the picture of a little girl during her first week of kindergarten. Her teacher expressed dismay that while it’s normal to have children cry for their mothers during that first week, this little girl was in fact crying for…her tablet. She missed her tablet.

The implications of all of this are terribly depressing for culture, art, literature, education, politics, publishing, and lots of other aspects of life. I don’t want to go down all those roads today. We spent a good chunk of a staff meeting last month just being sad about it. It doesn’t help that the people who read the article first are the ones on our staff most given to a “get off my lawn” cynical approach. I may or may not have made a veiled, unserious threat towards anyone on staff who asked a bot to summarize the article for them (it’s long—but that’s part of the point).

But today, like a butterfly shedding her cocoon of societally-induced depression, I’m throwing all of that off. I want to talk to you about the part of that article I liked—the tiniest glimmer of sunshiney hope that it held for me.

Eventually the author got to the people who will still read, even as the habit is disappearing for many. The remaining readers were described as pursuing a “niche hobby,” something more in the lines of embroidery, or gourmet cooking, or watercolor. You probably know some of these people, and I bet many of you are these people. You have an item of clothing that makes a literary reference (ask me about my sweatshirt). You know what house you’d be in at Hogwarts; you have given a gift to your children that Father Christmas gave to one of the Pevensies. Though the embrace of reading is growing less broad, perhaps it is growing more deep. In a unique way, it is sticking to the ones who love it.

While I still feel it would be far better for our society if reading weren’t a niche hobby, but a widespread habit—a necessity—I am glad to serve the niche hobbyists. And I am glad to be one of them.

I am glad to work for an author who shows up to conferences to crowds of children wearing bunny ears. I am grateful for the letters we receive and the lines at book signings. I am excited that you are excited about what we’re doing here at Story Warren, and I’m grateful that you cheer us on in a myriad of ways. You name your pets after our characters; you put together family costumes; you host birthday parties. You dive deep on our booklists. You tell your friends about our newsletters and resources.

All that to say, dear readers, keep being niche-y. Dive deeper. Invite a friend to a bookclub or three or twelve. And please, start one for your kids. They need to know more than ever that reading is wonderful—that it is a habit that can make them wonderful, part of a warm, beneficial, noble community of readers who pursue rest, truth, beauty, and the common good in the written word.

Kelly Keller
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