True for fiction books. But if you think about fiction generally, as the poster said, the medium has changed. People still love fiction, but now it's movies and shows.

I suspect in the past they also read far more nonfiction.

I wouldn’t bet on it, unless we’re counting user-generated posts online, and clickbait “articles”. Which, maybe we should.

[edit] JFC I misread your sense of “read”, I think we agree.

Updated my post. I don't think I encountered that "bug" in the English language before.