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.
In my dreams! It's not unusual for me to take a book to the latrine, but I'm usually followed by the cat and one or more children.
I like to say that my definition of "entertainment center" is a bathtub with a bookcase on one side and a refrigerator of champagne on the other!
I personally prefer biographies and military history, but my blue-haired daughter reads fantasy, science fiction, hunting-and-outdoors interest, politics and religion, and a couple of local newspapers.
I’ve seen Susan Cooper books around the house this summer, so somebody is reading them!
I find that children love books, especially if the books come with adult attention. Not just own kids, but also the ones I work with in Sunday School and Scouts.
Also "Half Price Books," although I spend more time waxing nostalgic with all the old vinyl LPs when I'm there.
Twilight is fantastic. You should follow it up with New Moon and Eclipse.
I read Raintree County, at least I tried to read it; I have judged every book since (about 41 years ago) on a 1 to RTC scale but I haven’t been to the library in over a year.
BTW, RTC is the highest mark possible on a range of difficulty; rather like the namesake film where they cast Montgomery Clift as the leading man, it has all been downhill since then.
When really stressed I go for the three B's. Book, beer & beach.
I just finished Eclipse the other day. I don’t want to have to wait another year for the rest. It was very good. If you go on her website, she has an excerpt of Twilight seen from Edward’s vision. It was enlightening.
Has she read Mists of Avalon? One of my all-time favorite reads, fantasy or otherwise. I read it every fall.
That looks familiar, too, but I don’t remember whether I’ve seen it in the house, or just on the library shelves!
Anoreth seems to be mainly checking out science fiction currently, “Star Wars” books and the technological type of space fiction. Bill’s on a spy fiction kick; it seems that’s a growing teen-fiction genre.
Depends on the book. Most books actually were never aimed at the every man, they were aimed at fans of the genre. You think Raymond Chandler ever tried to sell books to people that weren’t fans of pulp detective stories?
As for the prices while they have risen dollar for hour books are still the best entertainment value out there. Paperbacks cost about as much as a movie and take on average 5 times as long to read. In a time of $80 dollar concert tickets for stadium tours claiming $8 paperback are priced away from the “every man” is just silly.
I’m with you 100% MadameDufarge!
You hit the nail right on the head.
Love your response
Our favorite thing to do on vacation is go to as many used book stores in Florida as we can find. (and there are tons of them. Real treasures too. and read, read, read.
Apples and oranges. Chandler — although a good writer — was genre. Grapes of Wrath, on the other hand, was pretty much general fiction aimed at “every man.” Today, the general fiction list of most publishers is very sophisticated and aimed at the educated urban reader. And yes, there are exceptions.
p.s.
Look at a book like Blood Meridian. A brilliant book written by a guy who will probably win the Nobel Prize one day. McCarthy has probably sold fewer books in his entire career than folks who paid to see Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle.
And yet, our “dumb” President read 134 books last year.
Last night on the history Channel’s documentary about 9/11 conspiracy theories, they talked to a girl in the truther movement who looked a lot like Kelly...only after a lobotomy.
Want to make that herring a little more red. Do you realize how incredibly stupid it is to site some book nobody freaking heard of that’s some massive treatise on history as “proof” that books are a luxury?! You could buy hard covers of EVERY SINGLE Stephen King book, multiple copies even, for the price of that thing. Specialty books are NOT what anybody is talking about on this thread, and not even what YOU were talking about until you got desperate to have a point.
Let’s track Durasell in this thread. First he says books are a luxury. Then when called out on that being BS he says “no no I mean the time to read books”. Then it’s pointed out that that’s just as giant a stinking pile of horse manure and he goes off on some weird about stereotypes and in the process comes up with stereotypes that don’t actually exist (there simply is not a stereotype of the fit bookworm, maybe the Greeks might have had that stereotype but nobody since the birth of Christ has). Then he insists the luxury line came from some graphic artist and then spouts of on how book covers aren’t lurid anymore, which is really funny when you realize that Chip Kidd works with Frank Miller who’s the current reigning king of lurid books, on the cover and in the pages. And now you mention high priced specialty books, that are an incredibly minor niche in the book industry, as proof that books are a luxury? Dude you lost, you have no point, your statement was patently false and your attempts to defend have gone beyond strange to downright sophomoric and laughable. Walk away, you were wrong, and you know it.
No Grapes of Wrath had a target audience, people who are interested in poor share croppers, there really never has been and never will be a “general fiction” list, all that is is books they can’t slap a convenient label on. The modern “general fiction” list is just as broad as ever, from the stupid criminal stories of Elmore Leonard and his clones (and BTW these guys are very prolific writer and get a lot of their books turned to movies, they have a clear every man appeal) to whatever the hell it is John Updike writes. There really aren’t exceptions, because there is no rule. There are plenty of books for reasonable prices that the every man can read if he so choses.
What does Cormac McCarthy’s lack of success have to do with anything. The fact that he, called by some one of America’s most pretentious authors, isn’t writing for the every man has absolutely NOTHING to do with your original false statement that books are a luxury, nor does it have any to do with your statement that modern general fiction is geared towards an urban audience. McCarthy’s stuff might be geared towards that audience, but his lack of success shows he’s not part of the norm. You want books geared towards the everyman read Elmore Leonard, nice popcorn books about stupid people, and they sell well too.
I also read factual and fictional works unrelated to my profession to bring pleasure to the experience of reading. This provides a very welcomed balance to my relationship with reading.
I also find that the Bible is the only book that I have read over and over and learn something new every time. I can not say that about any other book that I have read in my life.
I usually read 5 to 7 novels during the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year holidays without it taking any time away from my family and religious obligations.
Sadly, I do agree with you and am also surprised that the number of people who read no books last year is not higher.
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