World Book and Copyright Day is an annual event organized by UNESCO to recognize the power of books as a bridge between generations and across cultures. It is celebrated on April 23 to honor William Shakespeare, Miguel de Cervantes, and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, who all died on that day.

In a world of screen-addicted doomscrollers, Iga Swiatek remains a steadfast breath of fresh air. The 24-year-old Pole has happily served as tennis’ resident bibliophile and reading evangelist, using the spotlight she’s earned as a six-time Grand Slam champion to encourage her Gen Z cohorts to put down their phones and crack open a book. 

Why escape with an algorithm full of contextless short-burst content when you can disappear into the rich inner of lives fully lived and worlds meticulously built?

Swiatek’s love for fiction crystallized in her teens. It was Ken Follett’s 1,000-page tome The Pillars of the Earth that first opened her eyes to the power of the written word. Swiatek had never read a book so long and dense, yet she easily devoured the historical epic and wanted more. Follett still occupies the No. 1 and No. 2 spots on her list of favorite books.

“It just made me feel less lonely in the world,” Swiatek said in 2023. “It was just fun mixed with spending time well and getting to know the people that you read about. It’s more like you felt like they are your friends.”

Even as Swiatek’s Hall of Fame career has taken her from the quiet anonymity of the Polish suburbs into a globe-trotting, internationally recognized star, books remain her touchstone. Whether she’s winning or losing, her ever-present Kindle serves as a security blanket of sorts. Reading brings her peace and balance. Her TBR pile—“To Be Read”—is digital as well, a place where she jots down the literary ephemera that crosses her path on any given day. As with any and all book nerds, Swiatek’s TBR is growing faster than she can knock titles off the list. And while she remains coy of its specific contents, the books run the gamut of literary classics, modern biographies, historical fiction, and psychology books. 

“Obviously I get many books, but I don’t really travel with them because it’s pretty hard to carry all of that,” Swiatek told me this week in Madrid. “I have a list of books that people tell me to read or I saw on the internet, and it’s getting bigger and bigger because obviously reading takes some time. I read basically every day a little bit, and I love that. That’s the best way to spend time.”

In March, Swiatek relaunched her Reading With Iga challenge wherein she once again challenged her fans to read at least 12 books over the year. The first iteration of the initiative came in 2023 and was accompanied by regular book reviews from Swiatek. In a sea of elevator selfies and funny pet content, there was the then-world No. 1 offering earnest dissection of the material. This year, she has already posted reviews of Paul Murray’s The Bee Sting and Asako Yuzuki’s Butter.

“Obviously I love fiction, so anytime I have a good fiction book, I’m going to pick it because it’s just fun for me,” Swiatek said. “But at the top of my TBR list are some books about psychology and biographies that I want to read just to get to know about the world a little bit better. They are at the top because I feel they can also give me some perspective and help me learn some stuff. 

“But somehow, if I have a fiction book, that will always be at the top of the pile.”

Nowadays, Swiatek is in her Cultural Curiosity Era. Reading is an escape from reality for her. She craves spending time in a world that bears little resemblance, at least on the surface, to her own. After reading Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko and Yuzuki’s Butter, she is now in the midst of Wild Swan: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang.

“It’s about three generations of women in China from the second World War and on,” she said. “It’s really interesting. I love historical fiction, even though I think this is not actually fiction. 

“It’s interesting because you can get to know the culture more and get some perspective.”