It’s no secret the media ecosystem is different today than even fifteen years ago. Digital streaming platforms have altered the way we interact with information, news, culture, and each other. While it might seem inevitable to trade in the old mediums, like paper newspapers and books, for the screen, a host of writers are calling us to pause and reconsider.

The novel is one of those traditional mediums that struggles in our screen-heavy society. We both lack the attention spans needed to immerse ourselves in great books and lack sufficient interest in longer forms of entertainment because of the instant gratification on offer from platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. But look where that’s gotten us! More anxiety, depression, feelings of disconnection, and “brain rot,” which earned the 2024 Oxford word of the year.

Returning to the novel, then, is no easy task, and it might take a widespread cultural movement to actually do it. But there was a time when literature played a much more significant role in shaping American culture, and served as the choice leisure for the citizenry. Reading old books, writes C.S. Lewis, is a way to avoid the navel gazing that every generation is tempted to do. When we aren’t rooted in a sense of historical progression, or don’t realize that prior generations have something vital to tell us, we lack a comprehensive understanding of the human experience. Literature can give us that. Lewis writes,

Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means old books. All contemporary writers share to some extent the contemporary outlook — even those, like myself, who seem most opposed to it.

Lewis was writing against making modern books one’s exclusive reading diet. Reading contemporary books limits our view of life and human nature. Now, though, the task is simply make the to pick up a book, any book, and make some time to try and enjoy it.

Novels are unique in their capacity to shed insight into the complexity of our world and human nature, and are able to produce meaning and resonance. Through the novel The Brothers Karamazov, we get a mix of religion, psychology, philosophy, and dramatic narrative. We get insight into the inner turmoil of the character and the radical possibility of having hope in a broken and fallen world. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens shows the redemptive arc of a miser who discovers, even late in life, the beauty of living generously on behalf of others.

Besides the thematic and moral richness of classic literature, though, remains its undeniable entertainment quality. It takes a while to get into a book, especially if one is so used to scrolling social media, but once you’re in, it’s hard to get out. In our day and age, “getting there” is the main obstacle, but the great books are still waiting for us to dust them off and give them a try.