“I went through a period from late March to the end of June where I just didn’t read a book at all,” said Tyler Mclane, a librarian at the Coeur d’Alene Public Library.
He participates in the goodreads reading challenge and usually aims to read 52 books for 52 weeks. Last year, he read 80 books overall. This year looks like he will read just under his aimed 52.
“I’m reading for distraction right now, and it’s hard for me to commit to anything chewy,” Mclane said.
Correlating to his struggle to read, the library’s circulation numbers decreased this year. But while decreased numbers suggest people are reading less, Mclane’s conversations with regulars suggest something else.
“Several of them have noted that they’re using the library more and more just as things get so uncertain,” Mclane said.
A survey ran in the United Kingdom discovered the COVID-19 lockdown affected how people read during times of stress. According to The Conversation, people reported having more time to read, “but an inability to concentrate meant they made less progress than usual.”
Shambry Emero, the Library Director for Rupert’s DeMary Memorial Library, also struggled to read this year. She’d looked forward to reading a book by her favorite author, but when it came out, it sat on her coffee table for weeks.
“I would pick it up and it was just like, ‘uggghh,’ ” she said. “I think it’s because our minds are so focused on survival.”
Marina Rose, the Adult Services Librarian at the Caldwell Public Library observed that she and her co-workers listened to more audio books this year. They also noticed their patrons’ interest in mental health books.
“That could be because of what’s going on in the world right now,” Rose said.
With the now common use of, “unprecedented times,” it makes sense people feel anxious and overwhelmed. Constance Brady, a writer for Vox, tried to make sense of anxiety’s effect on people’s concentration through an interview with Oliver J. Robinson.
Oliver J. Robinson, a neuroscientist and psychologist based at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London, studies the neuroscience of anxiety and depression.
“Anxiety is about uncertainty,” Robinson said. “There’s no beginning or end. You can’t see it.”
Recovering from anxiety, he explained, requires you try to resolve the uncertainty. Libraries have undertaken various precautions to curb the spread of COVID-19, yet Kristin Fletcher, the Programs and Engagement Coordinator for the Hailey Public Library, noted people still don’t feel comfortable interacting with them.
“The pandemic that we’re in is the most uncertain thing possible,” Robinson said. “The problem is that you’re never going to actually resolve it.”
He further explained that difficulty to concentrate partially ties into resolving the unresolvable. However, one resolute answer to resolve uncertainty does not exist.
“One person’s anxiety is completely different to another person’s anxiety,” Robinson said.
While reading proved stressful to some, it also became the solution to others.
“We had 45 minutes,” said Amy Campbell, the Public Services Supervisor at Pocatello’s Marshall Public Library. The library scrambled to comply with the city’s decision to close their doors within the hour as part of the state’s stay-at-home mandate.
With people in the building and others rushing across town before the close, Marshall librarians encouraged patrons to take what they needed. “It was kind of like the sinking of the Titanic,” Campbell said. “We were telling people, ‘no limits.’”
For Courtney Homer, the Adult Fiction and Children Acquisitions Librarian at Rexburg’s Madison Public Library, reading became her escape. Able to enter a different world bound with a cover brought her needed space from the world’s chaos.
“I think that a lot of people are feeling that they just want to escape and go somewhere else for a little bit,” she said.
Whether reading brings comfort or drags the day down, Jennifer Hills, the Adult Services Department Head at the Twin Falls Public Library, has observed some patrons read more about ongoing events while others have sought escape like Homer.
She said, “I think it’s more about finding something they’re interested in and that they’re comfortable with right now.”