Critics Reevaluate Reading Values as American Literacy Habits Decline

Joseph Epstein and Adam Kirsch offer new perspectives on literature as recent surveys reveal less than half of Americans read a book last year.Kirsch argues that reading should be viewed as a private pleasure or vice rather than a civic duty to protect it from becoming a social chore.The 88-year-old Epstein notes that his own habits have evolved toward higher standards and essential classics by authors like Homer and Leo Tolstoy.