Posted on 08/21/2007 2:24:45 PM PDT by Nachum
There it sits on your night stand, that book you've meant to read for who knows how long but haven't yet cracked open. Tonight, as you feel its stare from beneath that teetering pile of magazines, know one thing — you are not alone.
One in four adults say they read no books at all in the past year, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll released Tuesday. Of those who did read, women and seniors were most avid, and religious works and popular fiction were the top choices.
The survey reveals a nation whose book readers, on the whole, can hardly be called ravenous. The typical person claimed to have read four books in the last year — half read more and half read fewer. Excluding those who hadn't read any, the usual number read was seven.
"I just get sleepy when I read," said Richard Bustos of Dallas, a habit with which millions of Americans can doubtless identify. Bustos, a 34-year-old project manager for a telecommunications company, said he had not read any books in the last year and would rather spend time in his backyard pool.
That choice by Bustos and others is reflected in book sales, which have been flat in recent years and are expected to stay that way indefinitely. Analysts attribute the listlessness to competition from the Internet and other media, the unsteady economy and a well-established industry with limited opportunities for expansion.
When the Gallup poll asked in 2005 how many books people had at least started — a similar but not directly comparable question — the typical answer was five. That was down from 10 in 1999, but close to the 1990 response of six.
In 2004, a National Endowment for the Arts report titled "Reading at Risk" found only 57 percent of American adults had read a book in 2002, a four percentage point drop in a decade. The study faulted television, movies and the Internet.
Who are the 27 percent of people the AP-Ipsos poll found hadn't read a single book this year? Nearly a third of men and a quarter of women fit that category. They tend to be older, less educated, lower income, minorities, from rural areas and less religious.
At the same time, book enthusiasts abound. Many in the survey reported reading dozens of books and said they couldn't do without them.
"I go into another world when I read," said Charlotte Fuller, 64, a retired nurse from Seminole, Fla., who said she read 70 books in the last year. "I read so many sometimes I get the stories mixed up."
Among those who said they had read books, the median figure — with half reading more, half fewer — was nine books for women and five for men. The figures also indicated that those with college degrees read the most, and people aged 50 and up read more than those who are younger.
Pollyann Baird, 84, a retired school librarian in Loveland, Colo., says J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter fantasy series is her favorite. But she has forced herself to not read the latest and final installment, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," because she has yet to file her income taxes this year due to an illness and worries that once she started the book, "I know I'd have to finish it."
People from the South read a bit more than those from other regions, mostly religious books and romance novels. Whites read more than blacks and Hispanics, and those who said they never attend religious services read nearly twice as many as those who attend frequently.
There was even some political variety evident, with Democrats and liberals typically reading slightly more books than Republicans and conservatives.
The Bible and religious works were read by two-thirds in the survey, more than all other categories. Popular fiction, histories, biographies and mysteries were all cited by about half, while one in five read romance novels. Every other genre — including politics, poetry and classical literature — were named by fewer than five percent of readers.
More women than men read every major category of books except for history and biography. Industry experts said that confirms their observation that men tend to prefer nonfiction.
"Fiction just doesn't interest me," said Bob Ryan, 41, who works for a construction company in Guntersville, Ala. "If I'm going to get a story, I'll get a movie."
Those likeliest to read religious books included older and married women, lower earners, minorities, lesser educated people, Southerners, rural residents, Republicans and conservatives.
The publishing business totaled $35.7 billion in global sales last year, 3 percent more than the previous year, according to the Book Industry Study Group, a trade association. About 3.1 billion books were sold, an increase of less than 1 percent.
The AP-Ipsos poll was conducted from August 6 to 8 and involved telephone interviews with 1,003 adults. It had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
I usually have at least four books going at the same time; one in each bathroom, one by my easy chair, and one on the nightstand...
David Weber, huh. I’ll have to check that out. I just did my annual book purge......I hauled some sixty books off to the library to donate. My bookcases are still overflowing.
Ping!
You must own a 1911 car.
“Avid readers, in my experience, tend to be more solitary by nature and maybe spend more time feeding their minds than paying much attention to what they feed their bodies.”
It describes me in a nutshell.
You'll love him, he writes strong female characters, but the male characters are even stronger. Good drama, believable scenarios. I love him.
Even with the purge I still have 14 bookcases that are full. Now you know why I went electric. LOL!
How are you doing Ti?? Haven't talked to you in ages.
In 1926, popular singer Vernon Dalhart had a hit record about this 1925 disaster entitled "The Sinking of Submarine S-51"--I believe it was issued on Victor Records.
It’s been rainy and dreary around here. Friday we head out to a day at the lake.......I am hoping the weather perks up.
Boy, are you ever in luck! I usually download these onto my pda, but they’re good hot off the web, too. The online format is easy on the eyes.
i’m surprised that 3 out of 4 people read books last year.
that’s not the case in my ‘hood.
I do that too. I have a stack of books I am currently reading and the stack's contents gradually change.
Thanks, I found it. ;^)
Does Freeping count? I read on here ravenously! It feeds my reading addiction.
Please allow me to plug my current favourite series:
http://www.webscription.net/10.1125/Baen/0671578499/0671578499.htm
1632, by Eric Flint. Lot’s of good, alternate history fun :)
I have about 3 or 4 books going at the same time as usual.
I usually get them all done, but not always at the same speed.
I suppose that it is some sort of Adult Attention Deficit Disorder symptom.
“Four books would be a slow two weeks for me.”
Personally, I think quality is more important than quantity. Atlas Shrugged really slowed me down as well as the biograpy of Einstein.
I am glad more people don’t read. This naturally helps me advance in life by reading self improvement books, as well as technical and career books.
I bought it from Ebookwise, another place you can download books from. It has a companion site called Fictionwise, but you would need to remember to by the mutli-format books, otherwise you get a glitch or three.
Baen is really great about having their books electronic. I bought the entire Honor Harrington series, and a few of David Weber's other stuff.. basicaly anything I could get.
My device looks like: 
These have become favorites of mine, excellent stories, twisty plots, and the humor is up my alley. I have gone back and re-read them over again and constantly find where I didn't catch something the first time.
I am reading one of the Honor series now on-line. It’s more entertaining than FR tonight. Thanks for the tips. The handheld thing looks interesting. I like to read in bed and I can’t haul this ‘puter there. LOL
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