All this talk of AI stealing our jobs, trains that are never on time, and a student debt that can never be paid back: the anxious generation just can’t seem to catch a break. If only we could find something to ease our minds and take them away from the endless weight of more bad news.

Maybe TikTok or Instagram? Although this seems only to exacerbate the problem: scrolling through endless videos of people telling you what’s going wrong. Oh! Cute cat video. Now back to everything going wrong.

Now, what if I told you that there is a way to lift this weight, to let your mind wander and immerse yourself in a different world? And I’m not talking about drugs. No, instead, the long-lost art of reading books. Yes, you heard me!

Reading books is sadly becoming an archaic idea. Why would you read a 500-page book when you can just watch the movie? Or, better still, watch the movie split into 47 parts on TikTok with Subway Surfers playing underneath it?

The statistics are fairly depressing. In 2024, only 34.6 per cent of children and young people aged 8–18 said they enjoyed reading in their free time, which was the lowest figure recorded since the National Literacy Trust began collecting the data in 2005. Only around one in five said they read something daily in their free time.

And perhaps this shouldn’t be particularly surprising. We have become accustomed to entertainment arriving instantly. TikTok doesn’t ask you to concentrate for 50 pages before something interesting happens. Instagram doesn’t require you to remember who a character introduced 300 pages ago was. Our attention is constantly being fought over, and books are losing.

But that is precisely why we need them.

Reading forces you to do something that is becoming increasingly rare: concentrate. There is no second screen. No notification popping up halfway through a paragraph. No algorithm desperately trying to stop you from getting bored. For however long you are reading, you have to exist entirely within one thing.

And, more importantly, reading is an escape. When the real world seems relentlessly depressing, there is something rather wonderful about being able to disappear into somebody else’s. You can fight in a war, fall in love, ride dragons, become a Greek hero or overthrow an empire, all without leaving your bed.

But there is one fairly obvious problem with telling people to “read more”: read what?

So, if you haven’t picked up a book since GCSE English made you analyse the colour of a curtain for three pages, here are five books I have chosen to make you fall in love with reading again:

1. The Poppy War — R. F. Kuang

An epic historical fantasy, this series is not for the faint-hearted. Inspired by twentieth-century Chinese history, it follows Rin, a war orphan who shocks everyone by testing into the country’s most elite military academy.

What starts as a fairly familiar underdog-at-a-posh-school story quickly becomes something much darker. There is war, politics, gods, violence and some genuinely horrifying moments. It is definitely not a cosy fantasy read.

Kuang manages to create a world that feels enormous without making you feel as though you need a degree in its history to understand what is going on. If you like books that completely consume you, this is one of them.

2. The Secret History — Donna Tartt

Think dark academia, cigarettes, elite colleges and supercilious students with an inflated sense of their own intellect. Add some drugs and a sprinkle of murder and there we go.

The Secret History follows a group of eccentric Classics students at an elite New England college who become a little too obsessed with the ancient world. You know there has been a murder from the very beginning, so the question isn’t who did it, but how on earth they got there.

It’s dark, pretentious and completely absorbing. By the end, you’ll somehow find yourself fascinated by a group of people you probably wouldn’t want to spend five minutes with in real life.

3. A Court of Thorns and Roses — Sarah J. Maas

I would be surprised if you have not heard of Sarah J. Maas. Crowned the queen of BookTok, her books have helped popularise “romantasy”, which has made the world go wild.

While the idea of reading 800 pages about faeries may seem a bit juvenile, I promise you that once you start reading you will become enthralled by her work. She is so popular for a reason.

I would start with A Court of Thorns and Roses, a sexy retelling of Beauty and the Beast, with magic, romance and enough plot twists to make you accidentally stay awake until 3am. It is not going to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, but that is rather the point. Reading is allowed to be fun.

4. The Song of Achilles — Madeline Miller

A retelling of The Iliad from Patroclus’ point of view. This is the most tragic, beautiful love story I have ever read. Please be warned that you will cry. A lot.

The story follows Patroclus’ life from a young boy who goes to live with the gifted, beautiful and seemingly untouchable Achilles, tracking their bond through the years and quite literally making you believe in the purity of love.

If you don’t believe in soulmates, this book will change your mind.

5. Red Rising — Pierce Brown

If The Hunger Games and Game of Thrones had a slightly psychotic child in space, it would probably be Red Rising.

The story follows Darrow, a member of the lowest class in a society built on Mars, who discovers that almost everything he has been told about his life is a lie. He is then thrown into the world of the ruling elite and tasked with destroying the system from within.

It is fast, addictive and incredibly easy to become obsessed with. And, conveniently, if you do become obsessed, there are plenty more books in the series to keep you occupied.