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.
Their= There
to=too
That’s better.
I mentioned that it was a stereotype — perhaps unfairly applied, but still applied. The connection, such as it is, has to do with intelligence level. The person who reads is also smart enough and disciplined enough to eat and exercise correctly.
Yes, it is unfair, but still applied by many people socially and professionally.
I seem to remember reading somewhere, the quote: “You are the product of the people you’ve met, and the things that you’ve read.” If that has any truth to it, what does it say about people that don’t read?
You should keep a book diary.
You would be surprised by the number of good nonfiction books are in the history and biography sections of the library.
I don’t even know how to start a day without reading, book in one hand, electric razor in the other, sitting on the throne. On hectic days that’s all I get in, but there will be reading every day, even if it’s only 15 minutes or so.
My favorite vacations are hauling a pile of CDs and a pile of books out to the pool, a little hard on the skin as I get older and don’t recover from sunburns as well. But there’s never been a more relaxing vacation.
There are some that I reread every year. Two of them are "On The Bottom" and "Under The Red Sea Sun" by Cmdr Edward Ellsberg. "Bottom" is a hair-raiser about salvaging the S-51 that was rammed and sunk off Block Island in the 20s. "Red Sea" is a marvel of how American ingenuity pulled off the "Massawa Miracle" in 1941 Eritrea. Both make you proud to be an American.
We think alike, except for me it’s a glass of wine. I read hundreds of books in a year. I watch very little TV, get my news from the internet, and enjoy books as my primary entertainment.
I think you’re just throwing stuff at the wall and hoping something sticks, the luxury thing was junk and now you’re scrambling for a point. Sure smarter people tend to read, if nothing else reading tends to make you smarter, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re eat and exercise correctly. All of these things have certain addictive aspects (mostly because they’re pleasurable at least to some people), and that addictive aspect can cause troubles. If one is addicted to reading one might be smart enough to eat properly and exercise but still not bother to do it, smart people can make dumb decisions.
It’s not unfair, it’s made up. You simply are not putting forth even remotely valid points, not in stereotype or reality.
Exactly! Last year we walked out of the local library book sale with 3 bags full of wonderful history books, biographies, etc. for about $20.
My idea of a good time is haunting antique book stores for PPC (pre-political correctness) era books of any kind.
I love their feel, I love their smell and I love the sustenance they provide.
LOL, I work at a center that does summer day camps. The past month we’ve had volunteers in to do summer reading with the kids. The kids read a book a day with volunteer assistance.
The books as a luxury items thing comes from a guy called Chip Kidd who is one of the premier book designers — you know his work, he created the Jurassic Park dino image later used in the movie.
You will notice that in recent years all of the lurid covers that used to adorn books have been replaced by more tasteful covers.
75% read a book...Amazing considering the NEA has tried to unteach reading for 30+ years.
I don’t care who originally said books are a luxury item, if they were speaking about any time after the 1970s when the non-rare used bookstore was invented they were wrong. And really even before then, new books went up in price in the 80s and 90s way past inflation. And as for the time, again wrong, people make the time for what they want to do, anybody that can’t find time to read doesn’t actually read for recreation. It is a simply a false assertion.
Lurid covers were a general rarity anyway. They primarily adorned pulp books, the mainstream have always had mellow covers.
I know what you mean. I don't have time to read for enjoyment: I'm constantly reading to keep up with technical changes. Right now, I'm "reading" parts of 3 Cisco router, firewall, and VPN books, a book on MS Server 2003, and two books on Active Directory! Actually reading the books cover to cover is something that I'd like to do, but I'm too busy looking up things to fix different crisis at work that keep cropping up. Maybe someday.
My birthday present to myself was to read a book that I had wanted to read for a very long time: I can't remember the title, but it was that book where Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin were brought into the present... Not a bad book, and a very quick read. And HP #7? I read one chapter the first night, 2 chapters the second night, and the rest of the book the third night that I had it.
Mark
If you buy them from a bookstore they are but if you shop at Goodwill or other thrift stores. I have picked some great books for .39 cents for paperbacks and .89 for hardbacks.
Have it your way. But books are no longer aimed at the “every man” in terms of pricing, content or appearance.
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.
I've always been more interested in people who have a house full of books than people who have a house full of combs and mirrors.
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