“You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”

Ray Bradbury, the acclaimed author of Fahrenheit 451, once said, “You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.” Many people might think that because our society does not (usually) burn books or censor information as in Fahrenheit 451, we are not at risk of losing our culture or succumbing to a totalitarian regime as in the book. Unfortunately, this is not the case. According to the Washington Post, the percentage of Americans reading for pleasure on a given day dropped from 28% to just 19%. Also, the Pew Research Center says 27% of adults in the US didn’t read a book in 2018. Though these statistics might seem inconsequential or innocuous, a drop in reading levels has enormous effects on society. Only an educated populace has the wherewithal to use their votes and voice to protect our culture. Getting people to stop reading is just about the quickest way to lose everything that has made us successful and sink into a world like Bradbury’s dystopia.