We Stack Up Poorly as Nation of Readers
WASHINGTON — There it sits on your nightstand, 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.
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 past 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 past year and would rather spend time in his 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 4 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 past 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 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 final installment, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” because she has yet to file her income taxes this year because of an illness and worries that once she starts the book, “I know I’d have to finish it.”
People from the West and Midwest are more likely to have read at least one book in the past year. Southerners who do read, however, tend to read more, mostly religious books and romance novels, than people from other regions. 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.
Democrats and liberals typically read 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 5 percent of readers.
More women than men read every major category of books except for history and biography. Experts said that confirms their observation that men tend to prefer non-fiction.
“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 Aug. 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.
© 2007 The Associated Press.
Americans’ reading habits are just more evidence of our laziness, which seems to grow boundlessly. We prefer the simple, passive processes of information consumption, and are willing to sacrifice a little bit of imagination for the convenience. Our much-vaunted American obesity isn’t just physical, but it’s apparently intellectual and spiritual, as well. I blogged on this one, too.
I don’t know if its entirely laziness Ron though you bring up a lot of good points. I would also argue Americans have little leisure time compared to other industrialized nations and alot of American families are barely keeping it together particularily mothers with jobs and kids.
first…the prices of books are very high, even at half-price stores. i raised two boys. i never could get them to read. they loved comic books. i finally realized it was reading, though not my kind. i bought comic books. today, they are very well informed on many things due to internet. the reasons for reading are not the same today. don’t fall into the trap of using your standards to make judgements.
one other point. the quality of binding and paper used is very poor. books will not last.
Books will not last? I don’t understand this point, at all. Clothing doesn’t last. Shoes don’t last. Flowers don’t last. Cars don’t last. Vacations don’t last. Hell, lots of marriages don’t last. You refuse to buy books because they “don’t last”?
jbs, get thou to a library.
reading…. studs terek, ‘hard times’ joanna stratton ‘pioneer women, voices from kanas’
‘bound for glory’ woody guthrie and ‘whose freedom’ george lakoff.
i was referring to the poor quality of materials of some books.
Radio and television have obviously destroyed the ability of people in the U.S. to read. Commodification of books, books as physical products to make profit, books for consumers who have money to buy books, have greatly reduced the range of topics.
After generations of implicit and explicit censorship of CONTENT that is opposed to the status quo, opposed to capitalism, organized religion (also in service to the status quo, is no wonder that the mass of people don’t want to read the junk periodicals, books that are always advertised.
Look at the dozens of periodicals in the typical grocerty store magazine rack. Nothing but advertising with an occasional article to supplement the advertising.
The effort needed to read is not needed to watch television. But even here advertising has so completely saturated television. But to the now brain-dead, unable to read, advertising is still tolerable.
The final solution is to turn off the television, unplug it, don’t repair it and don’t replace it. A first step to mental liberation.
Well, it’s kind of hard to find the time to read when you’re working two or three jobs just to keep a roof over your head and food in your belly.
And if you’re unemployed, I seriously doubt that curling up by the fire with a book is high on the list of priorities of things to do.
Time is definitely a problem, but it’s funny how people find the time to watch TV or spend hours on computer games or IMing or other activities. Reading just doesn’t appear to be a priority for lots of people. I think that’s sad. I love to read, and am constantly reading, though working 50-60 hours a week. And, I instilled that love of reading in my daughter, who somehow finds the time to read while going to school full time, working as a barista for 20 hours a week, and hanging out with friends and her boyfriend. It’s all about priorities.
I ride trains, BART (light rail) and buses a lot, and I have to say I see very few people reading during what is (to me) an ideal opportunity for some good solid reading time. An exception was the weekend when the latest Potter book was released. I saw quite a few travellers engrossed in The Deathly Hallows that weekend, but still they were only about 10 pct or less of the travellers around me. Most were
a) listening to their iPod
b) yakking on their cell phone
c) texting on their cell phone
d) watching video on their iPod
e) staring into space
it seems that Americans long for idleness, yet are easily bored and must be distracted and entertained if any idle moment comes along. sometimes Fahrenheit 451 seems just around the corner — how long before reading a book in public becomes “suspicious behaviour”?
after all, the German police have recently decided that having access to a library is suspicious, if not downright subversive. if the people read and write, then the Turrists win?
Reading books is not the only measure of how much people read or how well read they are. I for one have not read any books either this year. I do however spend time reading online everyday at sites such as Common Dreams, news sites, and sites with articles on other subjects I am interested in. I imagine many others who frequent this site do the same. And I defy anyone to tell me that I am not well read because of my choice of reading medium. To put it bluntly they are flat wrong and extremely narrow minded to consider the reading of books as the only guage that can determine whether or not someone reads or is well read.
In fact the world would be a better place IMO if those who spend time reading books read more online and kept up with the tragedy that is going on in this country.
Lobo Gris
I too read nearly all non-fiction articles on the internet, the daily newspaper and occasional magazines. I am dyslexic. Phonics tutoring in my childhood permitted me the satisfaction of reading college-level materials. There are many millions of Americans who were never given the chance to adequately master reading skills. The look-say method of “Dick and Jane” whole word recognition through to the present have not placed sufficient rote emphasis on building a phonics foundation for the 45% or so of children who must have it. I hope that this is finally changing.
I could have read several pages of a book, but I read this instead. While I do not rely on Old Media for news, I do look to the internet. Even so, I treasure my books, and do read them, just not as much as I used to.
Today I am inspired to put away my laptop and pick up one of my books. Thanks for the story.
Hey DeAnander,
I moved to the Bay Area from Minneapolis by way of Seattle two years ago, and it startled me to note how many people on BART (by contrast) *are* reading! And Mpls and Seattle were the top two most “literate cities” in a University of Wisconsin study in 2004. I shudder to think what the rest of the country looks like.
Could it be that so many people are graduating high school
with a fourth grade reading level? Maybe we shouldn’t
worry about them reading a book, but instead, worry about
them being able to fill out a job application.
I’ll admit it. I don’t read as many books as I should. Who has time? I have all sorts of books, comics (I know I’m a geek), magazines, etc. that are piling up. I want to read them, but I just get caught up in other things.
I also find it hard to find the time to sit down and watch a movie or tv show. My dad voraciously watches movies, gets them in the mail all the time. He gets annoyed with me because I won’t sit down and watch them with him. I just don’t have the time. I get pulled into discussions here on CD and in online chats/emails. Then I have all sorts of things to do around the house, get a workout in, check the mail, pay the bills, wash the dishes, relax a little, eat, etc.
I find that I do have time to listen to music, since I can do that while doing other things.
Lazy? Uh yeah, ok. Whatever.
Can you believe I’m a speed reader too?
And what’s really f’ed up? I want to write fiction! LOL. In fact, I find more enjoyment writing my own characters than reading about or watching someone else’s.
Btw, I’m still getting through Dave Zirin’s book “Terrordome”. I’ve been reading it during my breaks at work. Almost there.
I AM trying. It’s like mental weightlifting. No pain no gain.
I feel guilty that I don’t read enough books, so I push myself.
If you get your news from the internet, you read until your eyes ache. You also want to do something with all that reading, so you exercise your writing skills in a forum that suits your fancy.
Thanks to the internet, you not only read, but also think.
But there’s no substitute for a book, whether it’s an audio or visual format because you can get into a subject in a way not possible in any other media.
reading is more demanding than television or film. you have to supply the imagery yourself.
in a book you enter another world not your own, another mind, and you stay there over a period of time, days, weeks, and you collaborate with the author in the creation of that other world.
take a trip to Blackwater USA with Jeremy Scahill. Get into the American Empire with Chalmers Johnson. But for a real trip, fiction is best. Fiction is more informative than non-fiction because a fiction writer isn’t a journalist.
a journalist can’t bring a factoid to life because that’s not the purpose of journalism. A fiction writer doesn’t simply report, he/she brings the facts and ideas to life.
popular fiction writers like a Robert Ludlum or Michael Connelly, just to name two off the top of the head, do more to educate the public politically than Chalmers or Jeremy do with their excellent work simply because these thriller/police proceedural worlds are dramatic and widely read, even if they aren’t great literature. They are frequently turned into films and their influence is magnified.
the “Left Behind” series is probably the most influential propaganda ever written with 60 million copies sold to a bonehead audience that doesn’t ordinarily read at all.
The generation that is being imprinted by the Harry Potter series is going to translate that experience of a fictional world into the real world we share. Since I don’t give a shit about Harry Potter, I couldn’t say what effect this will have, but it’s going to be more significant for these kids than Noam Chomsky could ever hope to be for his contemporaries…..
don’t laugh out loud, iwarrior, about wanting to write fiction. when you consider it, this so-called reality is just another elaborate fiction. every day when you get out of bed, you’re just dreaming up a new twist in the ever-evolving plot…
I wonder what Alan Fram is reading right now.
Alan Fram is probably channel surfing.
I like to read, especially about politics and mysteries, but for all the reading I use to do, I now spend more time on the Internet as do many others. There is a lot of important material on the net and I hear a lot of folks use the net for all kinds of info. So Americans are still reading, but the net is providing them with information that is practical. It seems we can’t just let the time roll by anymore by just kicking back with a good novel. We are just rushing off to somewhere before time runs out.
Last fall, I was inspire to buy a copy of Noam chomsky’s book “Hegemony or Survival” when Hugo Chavez came to the U.N. to delivered his famous speech.
Dead Authors lives are almost never as interesting as what they wrote, and the authors, especillay those within the politcal genre, of today while seemingly alive spend most of their time writing about dead subjects as if they were alive.
They are constantly writing about how many times we got screwed and by whom; so that many of us have looked for stains upon our clothes before leaving home so as to not let anyone else know we have been screwed.
When are they going to begin to tell us how we can screw those who have been screwing us or at least find us a means of self defense that will stop the assaults?
For those of the SCi Fi likings the treasure trove of possible futures is stunning in their vastness.
The only problem is to understand SCI FI one must know of the roots from which man has come and that means reading lots and lots of works by dead authors.
One can find much to like in Choamsky and Zinn who last I heard were still alive but yet again they live in the past and sometimes barely get to the same day in which the rest of us live,; never mind the future.
Judging by most of the postings upon this and many other sites the future most see is very dangerous, more a Horror Story of boogymen and cataclysmic upheaval where the boggy man always wins.
Imagination gone dark and brooding instead of looking for bright spots or ways to stab the boogyman in the heart or at least keep him at bay with some garlic or cross of truth until we find a way to survive the night before us.
Americans read, Hustler, Playboy and their ilk sell in the millions, and the grocery stores tell of sex scandals and alien impregnations while for the pseudo nerds we have books on PC’s and gameboys to become mesmerized within.
Maybe the old saying. “You are what you eat” on the surface and in your tummy seems right maybe it could be slightly modified into , You are what you read;” so now if we could only get the majority of Americans to stop reading trash maybe they could find a way to improve upon our futures.
Rhinoceros, Ionesco
“don’t laugh out loud, iwarrior, about wanting to write fiction. when you consider it, this so-called reality is just another elaborate fiction. every day when you get out of bed, you’re just dreaming up a new twist in the ever-evolving plot…”
Oh I know that.
I draw most of my inspiration from my life and the people I run into.
The servey data just blurts out generalized facts that make box in certian groups of people unfairly, to just state that “whites read more than blacks and hispanics” is gross over simplification of the study and of culture itself.
“Of those who did read, women and older people were most avid, and religious works and popular fiction were the top choices.”
Well, as Kahil Gibran once said: “The obvious is that which is never seen until someone expresses it simply”.
Given the accelerated decline this country has experienced in the past 30 years, one has to wonder if we will ever stack up satisfactorily in any area beyond our military might and its “eye-for-an-eye” mentality.
Books are material and can be looked back into for reference since print began; where if even one page is missing an inference can still be made.
The internet is unreal and what was once either printed or written by removal of either a 1 or an 0 leaves nothing behind.
Wow, I would love to read more but I am busy being a slave in the new Bush economy.
You can buy books at the goodwill for about a dollar other thrift stores are cheaper too.
Reading makes me fall asleep too. I prefer animation learning.
I think a lot of the young enjoy video games more.
But people are not watching a lot of t.v. Viewership is dropping.
I think the television has become the new symbol for a lot of men who have too many duis to drive.
They can show off with a big screened television. When you go over to their homes you see that it is dusty. When you ask them what is on they will hardly know how to operate the televison.
Americans too obsessed with image and that is their demise.