The book The Song of the Cell by Siddhartha Mukherjee was singing to me for a while. During my Saturday ritual of perusing the bookshelves at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, I kept on returning to this 496-page tome on the evolution of our understanding of human cells and current implications for medical advancements.
As I finally brought the book to the counter for purchase a couple weeks ago, the cashier scanned the cover and said, “I just can’t take it if this is another book about how AI is taking over humanity!”
Me too, honey, me too. But that’s a rant post for another day.
I’m not a biologist – far from it – but as a psychology professor I play one whenever I am lecturing on neuronal communication. And so I benefit from reading books outside my content area in order to shore up my understanding of things I was too distracted to learn about in high school.
Of course, I also grow from reading in my content area, too. Some recent psychology books I read and recommend are Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life, How God Works: The Science Behind the Benefit of Religion, and The End of Trauma: How the New Science of Resilience Is Changing How We Think About PTSD.
I love reading. And, since you are spending your precious spare time reading this post chances are you do too. In a 2021 Gallup poll, American adults reported reading an average of 12.6 books per year. Although this figure represents a precipitous drop from previous years, it indicates people are still reading books. In addition, only 17% of adults in the survey said they read no books in the previous year. Reports of the death of book reading may indeed be an exaggeration.
But are our students reading books?
The aforementioned Gallup poll, along with studies on book reading rates by the Pew Research Center (2014) and the National Endowment for the Arts (2009), are in need of serious updating due to the emergence of artificial intelligence. While AI may not quite yet be taking over humanity, the possibility that it is taking over book reading may be closer. After all, a recently-shared article in the CTLE newsletter discussed how AI readers can actually synthesize full-length books better than any CliffsNotes blurb ever could, and for free within mere seconds.
There are additional reasons students may not be reading books outside of anything assigned in our courses (or maybe inside as well). Reading books requires attention, and there is evidence that attention spans are shrinking in part due to our near-constant interaction with digital devices. “Popcorn brain” is a mark of modern life, and it is not conducive to reading longer texts.
There are also pedagogical changes in how books are being assigned in classrooms. A 2022 position statement from the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) states, “The time has come to decenter book reading and essay writing as the pinnacles of English language arts education.” If this statement had been in effect when I was a sophomore in high school, I may not have read 1984, bringing the number of books I read that year from 1 to 0. (Remember, I was distracted!)
I’m no Luddite, cursing technology for less books in our students’ backpacks. And I’m not an English teacher, so I don’t doubt that the NCTE has very good reasons for focusing more on shorter passages as opposed to full-length books. I am, however, an educational psychologist, and as such I know aspects of motivation theory can be used to inspire more college students to read books. In particular, we can turn to Albert Bandura’s concepts of modeling and self-efficacy from social cognitive theory. And we can do so in an effort to futher connect with our students.
Be a reading supermodel
Students of all ages benefit from reading role models. When my son was in second grade, his teacher would invite parents in to join students in a D.E.A.R. (drop everything and read) session. After quietly reading for 15 minutes, parents and students would take turns sharing out favorite passages from the book they were reading. Students saw the people they love reveling in books, which Bandura referred to as vicarious reinforcement. The second-graders observed the feel-good effect of book reading, and they sought to get themselves some.
When I talk about the books I am reading with my college students, I light up. I know that my enthusiasm and elevated emotional display not only captures their attention, but they might also want to experience that same glow for themselves. I share the curiosity that brought me to pick up each book as well as the joy of what I learned. In addition, when I see a student holding a book (from another class or a pleasure-read), I ask questions and get all amped-up about what they are reading as well (even when it’s a story of Zombie/Vampire star-crossed lovers in the apocalypse.)
Boosting self-efficacy for book reading
According to Bandura’s concept of self-efficacy, we tend to engage in activities in which we have an expectation of success. So how does an expectation of success form for book reading? Here are some of Bandura’s proposed sources of self-efficacy applied to building a book-reading habit:
Messages from others (social persuasion) – When students say, “I just don’t like to read books,” I don’t argue with them. Instead, I tell them how I used to feel the same. I empathize with the struggle to sustain attention, and I share my experience of how I became a reader over time. I communicate confidence that they can indeed finish a book. I share goal-setting strategies if I sense an opening.
Successes of other individuals (vicarious experiences) – There is where my in-class book blasts come into play. In addition, I periodically ask students to share with the whole class about any books they are reading. When students see or hear of others reading books, they can imagine the possibility of themselves as readers, too. Book clubs are also excellent avenues for witnessing the successes of other readers and associating positive social connections with reading.
A learner’s previous successes (mastery experiences) – Simply put, the more books one reads, the more one’s reading confidence grows. Students need to be explicitly told this, but they also need to experience it. There is debate on whether assigning required books in school kills a love for reading, and I’m not here for that debate. But, completing an assigned book at least provides a mastery experience – the feeling that one can indeed finish a book. When my son was in high school, we read Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart together, which was required reading in his English class. It was a challenging book at the time, and I wanted to support his ability to finish what he started by scaffolding his reading. Mastery experience: ✔
You could say that modeling a love of reading and boosting self-efficacy amounts to a soft sell for pleasure reading, which feels just about right to me. Perhaps most importantly, sharing book titles and hearing about what my students are reading are ways I connect with them on a personal level. Anyone else up for a book connection? Keep an eye out for summer book club offerings from the CTLE. Join Goodreads and even sign on to the Goodreads 2025 challenge. (My goal is 36 books this year.) And if you are interested in celebrations of psychology books, subscribe to my free monthly newsletter at https://thepsychologyreader.com
