Recently means a short time ago, in the near past. If your friend asks what you've been reading recently, they want to know about books you've read in the last few weeks or months, not books from two years ago. If someone mentions a movie that came out recently, they mean it's new or fairly new.

What makes something “recent” depends on context. A recently discovered dinosaur fossil might be one found five years ago, since paleontologists work on long timescales. But a recently baked cookie probably came out of the oven within the hour. A recently elected president took office within the past year or two.

The word helps us talk about the near past without being overly specific. You might say “I recently learned to skateboard” when you don't need to specify whether it was three weeks ago or two months ago. The emphasis is on the fact that it's new, fresh, and still relevant right now.