The data shows us that young men in America are struggling. Bereft of life purpose, they are gaming, binging on porn, isolating themselves from society, and overall, are giving up on life. Social scientists and authors like Scott Galloway have argued vehemently that the “war on men” isn’t helping anyone of either sex. And the situation for men is worse than many people think. A new essay from Harper’s by Daniel Kolitz tells the tragic story of a movement of young men essentially organizing their entire lives around pornography consumption. After COVID, male isolation and unhealthy tech dependency has only gotten worse.

So, what’s the solution? Reading great books might not immediately come to mind, but according to professor Shilo Brooks, it just might be a part of the answer. In a recent podcast with new CBS editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, Brooks spoke about the value of reading, how college students are no longer comprehending and digesting books, and why the recovery of reading can help men.

In the episode, Shilo comments:

“Great works of literature are entertaining, but they are not mere entertainment. A great book induces self-examination and spiritual expansion. When a man is starved for love, work, purpose, money, or vitality, a novel wrestling with these themes can be metabolized as energy for the heart. When a man suffers from addiction, divorce, self-loathing, or vanity, his local bookstore can become his pharmacy.”

I recently had this sort of experience reading Light in August by William Faulkner. Many of the characters in the classic novel are disaffected, lonely, and outcasts. While I’m not wandering from town to town in search of work or turning to work as a bootlegger, the feeling of being someone on the margins, moving to a new town, struggling to find one’s place, is definitely a relatable experience. Reading about the human condition, in all its messiness, can help the reader feel less alone in the world. Reading, especially time-tested books, also fills the mind with ideas, interesting characters, and can have a transformative effect on the reader. We read to be entertained, yes, but also to be changed.

Brooks notes that one of the reasons men don’t read is because they don’t see other men read and therefore don’t regard it as a masculine activity. I mentioned Faulkner in the previous paragraph, but the list of great male authors (and by extension great male readers) is long and varied: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, J.R.R. Tolkien, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, W.H. Auden, Robert Frost. The list goes on.

Brooks also believes that it’s better to read a few books deeply instead of many books poorly. One thing he talks about in the podcast episode is how he noticed his students consuming a lot of material but remembering so little of it. His advice? Slow down. Take time to internalize the story, let it brew, percolate, and take root. C.S. Lewis argues for something similar in his book An Experiment in Criticism. To appreciate any work of literature, one has to suspend judgment and first receive it on its own terms before criticizing it. Don’t hurry through literature and don’t dismiss it before you’ve actually taken it in for yourself.

So, it would benefit everyone to read more, according to Brooks, but especially the screen-addicted young men who need an alternative way forward. Read and be challenged. Read and be changed.