Selection bias means that we don't have the sheer volume of printed material that there once was, as in pulp fiction novels, not to mention the newspapers and magazines that used to be in such abundance.

Where you lived made a difference. A rural Catholic area was not what you wanted. In the city with protestant ethics, things were a little different, more than one book was permitted.

Fortunately there is a lack of aristocracy in my known ancestry, so factory workers over the last century, and reading was the thing for them, including all of the difficult books, even though none of them had much in the way of education, just basic schooling and working for Ford in ye olde factory.

Agreed that before the 1900s there were literacy issues. However, empire has always needed vast armies of clerks and record keepers, so literacy has always been important, just not for everyone.