Don’t read anymore

By Noel Galon de Leon

There is a painful irony in the Philippines: we constantly praise reading as the foundation of learning, imagination, and progress, yet we continue to create conditions that make reading harder for ordinary Filipinos. We tell children to read more. We remind students that books open doors. We celebrate writers, teachers, and intellectual growth. But beyond the speeches and slogans, we rarely confront the uncomfortable question: have we built a society that truly allows people to read?

The answer is complicated. Filipinos still value reading. According to the 2023 National Readership Survey, 89% of Filipino adults continue to view reading positively. For many, books remain sources of comfort, escape, knowledge, and personal growth. Reading is not a dying habit because Filipinos have lost interest. The desire is still there. The problem is that the opportunity to sustain that habit is becoming increasingly difficult.

Perhaps the real crisis is not a lack of readers. Perhaps it is a system that slowly turns reading into a privilege.

For decades, society has blamed people for not reading enough. We point fingers at younger generations and accuse them of being distracted by technology, social media, and short attention spans. We romanticize the idea that successful people read books and then shame others for not doing the same. But we often ignore the bigger reality: many Filipinos are not choosing between a book and boredom. They are choosing between a book and basic necessities.

A nation cannot demand a reading culture while making books financially inaccessible.

Physical books remain the preferred format among Filipino readers, with 74% choosing printed copies. This preference is understandable. A physical book is more than just a collection of words. It carries an experience. The feeling of turning pages, highlighting important lines, keeping a book on a shelf, and returning to a familiar story creates a personal connection that many readers value.

But that experience is becoming increasingly expensive.

Buying a book today can feel like a luxury rather than a simple investment in knowledge. Paperback books now commonly reach around ₱600 or more, while larger novels can easily go beyond ₱700. For a middle-class family managing rising food prices, transportation costs, tuition fees, and household expenses, spending hundreds of pesos on a book requires a level of financial comfort that many do not have.

Then we ask why leisure reading is declining.

The data reflects this struggle. Reading for leisure dropped from 54% in 2012 to 42% in 2023. This decline should not automatically be interpreted as Filipinos becoming less curious or less intelligent. Instead, it reveals a deeper issue: people are struggling to protect time and money for activities that enrich them beyond survival.

Reading does not disappear because people stop loving stories. Sometimes it disappears because life becomes too expensive.

Some readers have turned to e-books and digital platforms as alternatives because they are often cheaper and more accessible. Technology has created new possibilities for people who cannot regularly purchase printed copies. However, many readers still miss the physical experience of holding a book. The emotional relationship between a reader and a printed page remains powerful.

The bigger challenge, however, goes beyond book prices. It is about access.

The Philippines’ geography creates another barrier. As an archipelagic country with thousands of islands, distributing books is not simple. Transportation and delivery costs affect the final price of books, especially in areas far from major urban centers. A book that is easy to find in Metro Manila may become expensive, limited, or completely unavailable in other provinces.

This creates a painful reality: where you live can determine how easily you can access knowledge.

Reading opportunities are not equally distributed. In urban areas, particularly Metro Manila, bookstores and libraries are more available. But outside major cities, many communities continue to struggle with limited facilities. The gap is clear. Some areas have only a handful of libraries serving hundreds of thousands, even millions, of residents.

A country that claims to value education should not have communities where finding a library feels like finding a rare opportunity.

Libraries are not just buildings filled with books. They are spaces where children discover ideas, students conduct research, and communities gain access to information they may not otherwise afford. When libraries are lacking, the inequality in education becomes even wider.

This is why the conversation about reading must change.

We should stop asking, “Why don’t Filipinos read?”

We should start asking, “Why have we created conditions where reading is difficult?”

It is easy to criticize people for spending time on entertainment, phones, or social media. But reading competes with the realities of everyday life. A person working long hours, commuting for hours, supporting a family, and dealing with financial pressure may not simply lack discipline. They may lack access, time, and resources.

A reading culture cannot be built through motivational quotes alone. It requires affordable books, stronger public libraries, wider distribution, support for local publishing, and policies that recognize reading as a necessity rather than a luxury.

The Philippines does not have a population that hates reading. It has a population that still wants to read but is being pushed away by economic and structural barriers.

The tragedy is that we continue to celebrate the importance of books while making books harder to reach.

So perhaps the title is not a joke.

Don’t read anymore.

Because if we continue to ignore the barriers that prevent people from reading, we are not just losing a hobby. We are losing curiosity, imagination, critical thinking, and a generation’s ability to question the world around them.

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Noel Galon de Leon is a writer and professor at the University of the Philippines Visayas, where he teaches in the Division of Professional Education and at UP High School in Iloilo. He is also the Secretary of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts-National Committee on Literary Arts.