Reading Habits

One in Four Read No Books Last Year
Alan Fram, AP: Aug 21, 2007

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 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 older people were most avid, and religious works and popular fiction were the top choices. Full Article

This article has created quite a stir along with a spike in reading. Some differing opinions and perspectives:

Reading Time Picked Up in ’06
by Jim Milliot, Publishers Weekly: Aug 20, 2007

Despite an explosion of media choices, the time consumers spend reading books each year increased by one hour in 2006, to 108 hours, according to the 21st edition of the Veronis Suhler Stevenson Communications Industry Forecast. The yearly report on media usage, spending and trends found that the increased use of the Internet and other digital alternatives actually freed up consumers’ time to spend with other media if they choose. “While new technology has allowed consumers to use other media more efficiently, a relatively strong adult trade market led to an increase in the time spent with books in 2006, the first increase since 2002,” said Patrick Quinn, CEO of PQ Media, which partners with VSS, an investment banking and private equity firm, on the Forecast.

a response from Stephen Krashen, Professor Emeritus
University of Southern California
Sent to San Diego Union Tribune: August 22, 2007

The AP-Ipsos poll is reported as showing that Americans don’t read much anymore (“Many not going by the book,” August 21). Several things are wrong with this conclusion.

First, the figures may be inaccurate. AP-Ipsos reported that 73% had read at least one book during the year. In 2004, according to the National Endowment
for the Humanities, 57% had read at least one book during the year, a substantial difference.

Second, it is not clear there has been a decline. The current figure is less than that reported for 1985 (86%), but it is an improvement over 1945 (71%).

Third, there is more book reading taking place in the US than elsewhere, more than in Canada (67%), Finland (66%), the UK (63%), and Belgium (23%).

Most important, the poll only counted book reading. Other kinds of reading have increased: Sixty percent of adults in the US use the internet, up from 25% ten
years ago, and 27% of internet users read blogs. About 9% of adults listen to books on tape, a relatively new phenomenon, and magazine reading has
increased in recent years. Only newspaper reading has declined.

Finally, there has been no deterioration of American intellectual life. The percentage of people who attend plays and operas, use public libraries and museums, and do creative writing has stayed the same since 1982.

God Plays Dice
A look at daily life through the eyes of a mathematician.

They say nobody reads anymore: Aug 22, 2007
. . . And what's so great about books, anyway? Why do we assume that reading books is automatically better than reading any other source of the written word? I suppose the argument is that a 100,000-word book requires more intellectual effort to read than, say, one hundred 1,000-word newspaper or magazine articles, because there is more interrelation among the ideas. But books come, for the most part, predigested. A lot of the real intellectual work is done in taking those clippings from various sources and making a book out of them. But this isn't a study of how intellectuals read, it's a study of how the person in the street reads. And even "study" is a bit too strong. They called up a thousand people and asked them some desultory questions. The AP did the poll itself. Let's face it, they're just trying to sell newspapers.

Going to the Mat
Wrestling with Issues and Ideas in politics, the law, education, and other stuff.

America Not Reading Books, But What About Anything Else?: Aug 22, 07
The headline screams: One in Four Read No Books Last Year but the story fails to discuss anything else, like newspaper, magazines, internet reading, etc.
Still the trend is disburbing. If Americans are not reading boooks, and there are questions as to whether they are reading at all, what might be the impact? Well for certain, we may not have enough historical knowledge to prevent public policy mistakes or personal mistakes. We certainly may not have the knowledge to adequately choose our government.

But Eduflack brings up an even more important point--we may be raising a generation of kids who can't read either. . . .

Books @ Your Local Library: CalCat or WorldCat

Book by Book: Notes on Reading and Life
by Michael Dirda - Henry Holt: 2007
“how the wit, wisdom, and enchantment of the written word informs and enriches nearly every aspect of life, from education and work to love and death.”

Reading Life: Books for the Ages
by Sven Birkerts - Graywolf: 2007
“revisits some novels he read years ago and finds in them both enduring beauty and a sometimes shifting resonance.”

Book Addict's Treasury
by Julie Rugg - Lincoln, Francis: 2007
“anthology of more than 350 quotations and excerpts from a wide selection of writers and thinkers--all on the subject of books.”

The Uncommon Reader: A Novella
by Alan Bennett - Farrar, Straus and Giroux: September 18, 2007
“When the Queen in pursuit of her wandering corgis stumbles upon a mobile library she feels duty bound to borrow a book.”