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 bless my parents (mostly my Mom) who read to us every day when we were growing up. That and the fact that we didn’t have a television until I was in 4th grade got us all in the habit of reading.
When I can’t pick up a book to read, I’ve got audio books playing - cds, cassettes and iPod. I even have audio books going while I FReep. Of course, I often have to pause and rewind. LOL
The Road really isn’t his best effort. I suspect the majority of folks who read it won’t finish it. It’s somewhat brutal. What was Oprah thinking? As for money, he’s doing just fine since they made All The Pretty Horses into a movie and optioned all the other books.
Hey girl! How’s things goin’?
I have yet to answer the call of the eBook . . . something about having that actual volume in my hand can’t be replaced. (Also, I don’t have a PDA.)
“Now it’s time for you to read “The History of the English Speaking Peoples”.”
how many volumes was this one anyway? Did he write just one? If so then i have it if not then i will have to find out which volume i have and which ones i need.
I thoroughly enjoyed the 6 volume set of his WW2 work. It is amazing when you read his work not only because he was at the forefront of the war as the leader of one of the Big Three but also because he was already an accomplished writer. Really great stuff
I’ve read a lot of good reviews about The Road. From what I’ve read it fits right in with the tone and theme of her other picks. It’s 38 on amazon at the moment.
It’s more accessible than some of his other books, but not his best. Weirdly, it reminded me of an old Harlan Ellison story called A Boy and His Dog.
Blood Meridian is really the best book he’s done. Harold Bloom, if I remember correctly, once compared it to Moby Dick.
What’s a major market? Counting new and used we’ve got over a dozen bookstores in Tucson, works out to about one bookstore for every hundred thousand people. Somebody must be buying all this stuff. The reality is books aren’t a luxury, not in time or in money, and the majority of the market is NOT geared entirely for the urban ego. You can keep moving the topic around with more and more false statements, but 100% of them have been false.
LOL
Isn’t that the truth. I think you’ll like them, they are on my, rainy day, snuggle in the couch shelf. :-)
BUMP
I’ve only read excerpts of that one (Hist of Eng Spk), but I know it’s multiple volumes. There are so many books both by and about Churchill that it’s nearly a lifetime’s reading. To my thinking, the greatest man of the 20th Century.
he definitely was one of the greats
he was the first and loudest voice warning the British and the World about Nazi Germany. He was also the First to warn about the Iron Curtain and the Soviet menace.
the man literally saved Western Civilization with his grit and determination standing up to Hitler
Wow. An avid reader and a conservative. Sounds like you did the parenting thing right.
That's about all I can manage with all the traffic. Middle of the day isn't too bad but rush hour is pathetic, and now I got school buses to watch for.
Tried books on CD but my mind kept wandering like I was in church.
Thanks - she’s coming along okay.
Nope. I own three 1911 style pistols.
Look, find someone with access to BookScan and check it out yourself. Sales are broken down by region.
Thanks,
Sounds like a great time. Its a great thing to do on a rainy day. Just brouse and read bits and pieces from as many books as you can . They may be expensive to buy, but this way you can still enjoy some segment of them.
I’m really into any one’s bio. (I’m also a Steven King fan. (go figure) :>)
Ahhh the great dodge of the person without any actual data to back up his BS, the ever popular “go look it up”. Sorry bub, you’re the one making the assertion it’s YOUR job to prove it. of course so far in this discussion you have offered absolutely no proof about your ever evolving 100% false statement yet so I won’t hold my breath.
The facts remain the same: books are NOT a luxury, the time to read books is NOT a luxury, the majority of books are NOT geared towards the “educated urban” demographic, the fact that some guy you think will win a Nobel can’t sell books has no meaning. There’s no there there in your argument. You have no facts, you are wrong, man up and admit it.
Chill out. Go read a book.
I read plenty, often times bestsellers, that are clearly not geared towards a New York audience. I went over here http://www.thebookstandard.com/bookstandard/charts/regional_index.jsp
and found that there was no serious difference in top sellers by region. Yes which book is 1 2 or 3 re-arranges and in one or two regions the #4 book in the country floats to the top 3. But really it’s consistent between the “major markets” and fly over. And at the top of the charts is the latest Far Side calendar and James Patterson, both clearly not “educated urban dweller” material.
Face it, you’re WRONG. Across the board WRONG. Unable to provide any facts, and unwilling to man up and admit it. your original statement was crap and you’ve been on a desperate search for relevance since then. Man up, admit your mistake. I’m chilled, but pathetic people that say patently false things and then can’t admit it deserve to be constantly mocked. So until you either flee or man up I’ll continue to point out that you are WRONG.
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