America A Nation of Non-Readers

[dynasaw]

What Does this Portend:

"1/3 of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives.
42 percent of college graduates never read another book after college.
80 percent of U.S. families did not buy or read a book last year.
70 percent of U.S. adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years.
57 percent of new books are not read to completion.
70 percent of books published do not earn back their advance. "

http://www.humorwriters.org/startlingstats.html


"Americans—of either gender—are reading fewer books today than in the past. A poll released last month by The Associated Press and Ipsos, a market-research firm, found that the typical American read only four books last year, and one in four adults read no books at all.

A National Endowment for the Arts report found that only 57 percent of Americans had read a book in 2002 a four percentage-point drop in a decade. Book sales have been flat in recent years and are expected to stay that way for the foreseeable future."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14175229

[JJ]

1. Apparently the Republicans were right

My family IS un-American. We all read books all the time.

[TechBear_Seattle]

6. The firemen have been alerted n/t

[joop]

34. ditto that

also, forget bookstores - check out paperbackswap.com and get books delivered to your house free for mailing out stuff you don't want anymore. I know the site has saved me hundreds of dollars on kids' books alone.

I read daily.

[H2O Man]

2. Not good.

I do not understand people who do not love to read.

[roguevalley]

20. I agree. I have three rooms full of shelves.

[Deja Q]

3. Of course Americans read. How else would we know,

Thomas Beatie's gone and done it again.

[dynasaw]

9. AOL news, Celeb News . . .

Enquirer,People, etc., etc., Yup!

[ellaydubya]

4. This is truly disgusting!

My family- the one I grew up with and the one I raised have always been avid readers. This is a very sad and sorry statement about our society here in America. Don't go messin' with my books!!!! I never leave home without one! That Kindle looks better all the time!:evilfrown: :mad: :wtf: :hurts: :grr: :nuke:

[Pithlet]

36. The Kindle is great. I love mine.

I take it everywhere. I highly recommend it for all readers. I wasn't sure how much I'd like it because I love my books, but it really is just wonderful.

[RoyGBiv]

5. Dearlord ...

If I went a year without walking into a bookstore, I'm sure I'd spontaneously combust.

[BrotherBuzz]

31. I could, maybe, go a year without walking into a bookstore but....

I visit my little Carnegie library two or three times a week. It's only two blocks away, closer than the newsstand, that is, if we had a newsstand in my Podunk town.

Truth be told, I never pass up the opportunity to visit a newly discovered used bookstore or an old Mom and Pop hardware store. Both businesses hold treasures dear to my heart.

[SidDithers]

42. I just can't walk by a used bookstore without going in...

it's a freakin' compulsion with me. I need help. :)

Sid

[cobalt1999]

7. Most people don't turn the T.V. or radio/ipod off long enough to read.

Wake up.
Turn on T.V. while getting ready for the day.
Radio on in the car.
Cell phone during the drive.
email and cell phone during the day.
T.V. on during the evening.
Computer games/Internet at night.

Unfortunately, most people never set aside any time to read.

[snappyturtle]

8. I can't imagine a life without books. It's an entire world in and of itself.

Of course one of the reasons people don't read is because they're illiterate..so sad.

edit:If we buy anything for Christmas/Holiday gifts it will be books. We have very little extra money right now or actually for the last few years but, book sales at the bookstores and on line plus used book stores have been wonderful sources for us.

[melody]

10. Sounds like a survey that set out with prejudice prior to inquiry

And therefore, isn't scientific.

Everyone I know reads all the time. Everyone.

[Joe the Liberal]

11. I haven't read a book in a loooooooooong time....

I guess I just don't care too much for books. I rarely find any book that appeals to me and when I do find something I start reading it but never finish it. It either gets boring or I don't understand whats going on in the story or I just lose interest. In today's world people seldom find the time or desire to read a book. :shrug:

[kestrel91316]

12. I went for a few years after finishing college where I did not read a whole lot.

I think I was just sick to death of it, lol. But then I picked up where I left off and have bought and checked out and traded for THOUSANDS of books over the years. And well over half of that non-fiction. Because I believe in learning about the world I live in.

I read a lot on the internet, too, which is different from books but still can be a valuable learning experience. I get most my books these days from paperbackswap.com - keeps me from accumulating too many.

[Itchinjim]

13. I've been reading myself to sleep every night since I was seven.

I've been doing it for 43 years now and I pray that on my death bed, I will draw my last breath shortly after I finish the final page of the final book I read.
It has helped me learn so much.

[W_HAMILTON]

14. I don't really read much anymore.

My memory isn't very good anymore, so it's hard for me to remember much that I have read, anyway. I don't really get much out of reading books, since I'd forget about them after a year or so, anyway.

I think the "forced reading" you get from school turns a lot of people off from reading. I know it certainly turned me off.

Plus, I don't see what the problem is if you don't read once you graduate. I contribute to message boards like this, and I think that is quite the learning experience. I don't read the newspaper much, but I read online news articles all the time. Does that all make me a lesser educated person? I don't think so.

[ColbertWatcher]

15. tl;dr, waiting for the movie. n/t

[IamyourTVandIownyou]

16. They read the internet instead.

.

[rockymountaindem]

38. I'm surprised it took this long (post 16) to come to the obvious answer

The internet is where more and more people are getting their information.

[madaboutharry]

17. Those numbers floor me.

But I know that they are most likely accurate. Both my parents were big readers and ever since childhood I have been a bookworm. My house is full of books and my children are also readers. I have been in houses belonging to friends and relatives where there is not a single book in the entire house. To me it is really tragic. My life would be bereft without books.

I will take this opportunity to tell you all about a book I just finished. It is titled "Yazuka Moon" by Shoko Tendo. It is a biography of a woman who grew up in a family of Japanese gangsters. She herself becomes a juvenile delinquent and sinks into a life of drugs and violence before she escapes. Her words throughout this book are very moving.

[Art_from_Ark]

18. I don't read modern fiction

Why get myself worked up over something that isn't true?

But I do enjoy the classics, because they paint a picture of life in a bygone era.

[Sisaruus]

27. I worry about the defintion of bygone eras

It is disconcerting to see the classic literature shelves at the bookstore hold the books I read in contemporary fiction courses back when I was in school.

[Art_from_Ark]

30. Kind of like "oldies" radio stations

playing songs that I used to skate and dance to in my school days.

[Libertyfirst]

19. I read all the time. Books have given me enormous gifts.

They have been my consolation in adversity, my escape when critically ill, and my inspiration to action. At times they have been my food when hungary, my warmth when cold. I buy them at yard sales, thrift shops, used bookstores, auctions and flea markets. I read almost everything and shudder to think how barren my life would be without books. I give them away by the bag and box lots. Because I buy them so cheaply I give hundreds of children's books to our libraries so they can provide them to children who do not have any. I give books to children's institutions, to prisons and anywhere people can use them. I leave them on busses, trains and park benches. My favorites: The Grapes of Wrath, Don Quixote, 84 Days -The Last Campaign of Robert Kennedy, Truman, and all the Harry Potter books. I do not understand how anyone can read Grapes of Wrath and not be a Democrat.

[Kitty Herder]

21. A life without books would be no life at all.

I don't understand those who choose not to read. Why cut yourself off from the greatest source of information and ideas? Or the pleasure that comes from losing yourself completely in a novel?

My brother and his wife are both brilliant people, but they don't read. I and the rest of my family are always shocked at the lack of reading material in their home. I don't think that either of them has read an entire book since they graduated from college. They're also intolerant of different opinions and bigoted. (I love them both, but I hate the way they talk about people of other races and religions.) I can't help but think their lack of reading contributes to those traits.

[progressoid]

22. 57 percent of new books are not read to completion.

I can vouch for that. I doubt I finish more than half of the books I start. Mostly because they suck too much.

[Scriptor Ignotus]

23. agreed

I barely made it to the end of your post.


:P

[codjh9]

24. Yeah, I've kind of followed these stats for 20 years or so, and it bugs the shit out of me - but I

think the '80 percent of US families did not buy or read a book last year' is false. If '57 percent of Americans read a book in 2002', then how did EIGHTY percent of 'families' not read a book? That said, though, the statistics are bad no matter what. I think computer games, TV, movies, blah blah blah all have their place, but I think if reading becomes only a 'cult' thing - and it's halfway there already - we will have really lost something as a culture and a society. The only comforting thing to me is that if they quit publishing books tomorrow, I'll never read everything I'd like to read in my time left, anyway... there are so many books out there I'd like to read that I haven't read yet.

[spooky3]

25. There are many other worthwhile things to read besides books.

I don't disagree with the argument that most Americans should read more and watch less TV or play fewer video games, but I just don't think that it's right to equate books with "reading."

[Dukkha]

26. what does the article say? I didn't read it

no time just give me the gist of it so I can't get back to reality TV

70 percent of books published do not earn back their advance? how much $ does it take to write a novel? a laptop, microsoft word, and some creative insight is all that's needed.

[RB TexLa]

28. They have "da TeeVee" and movies, but don't mention not giving that industry money on DU

you'll get told how there is no better way to spend money than to give it to the entertainment industry. :crazy:

[FredStembottom]

29. I have great difficulty in reading - always have - but....

I still love to read books!

An odd benefit to having such difficulty reading: I find that I actually do much better with very difficult books. It's all an ADD thing I'm sure - but I was born too early to have ever been checked for that. However....... 19th century books have become my good friends because the difficult and antiquated language holds my attention much better!

But I digress.........

Not reading? Impossible!

[Sheltiemama]

32. I even read when I brush my teeth.

Seriously. That's two extra minutes, twice a day. I'm always reading. I don't even want to count the number of books I have. As is true with most fellow journalists I know, if it's a flat surface, it has books on it.

[DU GrovelBot]

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[LiberalPersona]

35. Doesn't the internet

and digital media used for information access have something to do with this though?
People are moving from printed pages to digital screens for information.

[cemaphonic]

37. The thing I am always surprised by with these statistics is how chain bookstores are mall anchors.

Borders and Barnes & Nobles are almost always among the best performing stores in malls.

I guess those of us who do read more than make up for the rest. Certainly, every month when I get my credit card statement, I resolve to use the library more.

[Blue_Tires]

39. i noticed a personal trend last year and have been trying

to reverse it...i was an avid reader for most of my life, but somehow i've just been spending more and more time reading things online...i'm ashamed to say how long it had been since i last read a complete book (that wasn't self-help), but suffice it to say i've been rediscovering them like a long lost friend...

(currently reading a biography on Roberto Clemente)

[OneBlueSky]

40. "Get America Reading" . . . maybe a good campaign for the new First Lady? . . . n/t

.

[AgadorSparticus]

41. I don't believe these #'s for a minute. Granted, I am a natural bookaholic, but in the last couple

of years of personal stuff that left me almost no time to read, I STILL managed to get one or 2 books in. And EVERYONE I know (SAHM's, working moms)all read books. So, I find these numbers just hard to believe.

[Greyhound]

43. Consider this. A book that sells 300,000 is on the best seller lists,

a network television program with 3,000,000 viewers is immediately canceled.

Less than 3% of Americans regularly read books, more than 1 in 10 believe Elvis is alive, and almost 4 in 10 believe we are visited by extraterrestrials.