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.
The “luxury item” designation only partly applies to price. Again, content, appearance, etc.
Oh yeah, when the seven volume Rising Up, Rising Down came out the publisher was worried about the $1,100 (I think) price tag. The first pritning sold out almost immdiately. Since then, I’ve been seeing specialty books regularly selling for $600 and $700 in more and more homes of the wealthy along with a lot of normal priced books.
And three in four AP news editors pray this poll is correct.....
Blame english departments for assigning antiquated, boring books. Reading one action-less book you aren't interested in after another, and then being told what the author "meant" by someone who isn't the author is an experience to be glad to be done with indeed.
I think Shakespeare has single handedly kept more young adults away from libraries than every channel on the idiot box put together.
I also prefer nonfiction. My husband and I read every night. I reread Tolkien and Dorothy Sayers every year. Have read “History of the the English Speaking Peoples” and have purchase the new one the President read. How people can get through life without reading is beyond me.
Good point.
I know they exist but actually I have never, ever seen anyone reading a comic book.
And both are the sort you'd never find on a highschool reading list. If captive youth were exposed to patriotic adventure stories instead of Chaucer and Flowers for Algernon, more would read of their own free will later.
Maybe it’s the way I was brought up. Reading wasn’t a luxury, it was mandatory. My mother was a school teacher and we read books, LOTS of books. Perhaps if you think of it as a luxury then other mundane things will take up your time.
Harry Potter is so overrated. I have read the first 5 books, and number 6 is sitting on the dresser for 3 weeks now, and I just can't find the time to open it. Between Asheron's Call (a game) and FreeRepublic, I barely can sqeeze out enough time to go work out at the gym or see a movie. Something has to give.
It’s funny, but I actually find it difficult to communicate with people on any real level who don’t read, even at least, a newspaper, lol.
Btw, what’s the title of the book the President read? Thanks.
Then you don’t know about “The Silver Surfer” — One of the noblest and most tormented cosmic entities in the universe, who treasures freedom above all else, but has often sacrificed his liberty for the greater good.
Most of my great finds for cheap are books on the must read before you die lists. Pulitzer prize winners, recent best sellers lists, classic fiction, History, autobiographies, politics, mysteries, thrillers, modern classics, and many great world lit works. I don't waste my time or money on poorly written books.
Living in a college town with a master of fine arts program does have it's bennies. ;)
Books compete with other forms of “entertainment” such as TV, video games, movies, the internet, etc. They are time consuming and relatively pricey to own.
That is true but it’s also very easy to get caught up in mindless, brain numbing entertainment. We get to witness the results all the time by the poor social behaviors, ignorance of what is happening in the world, and atrocious spelling and grammar on message boards.
Those mind numbed robots vote.
Yep.
But, I do read about a book/week. If one doesn’t read an awful lot, there’s no way he can stay even marginally informed in today’s world.
A guy equals the sum of : what he has read + the women he has
been intimate with + the sports he has played + jobs he has
had.
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