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Friday, November 30, 2007
Are we reading less? Or more?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Uh-oh. According to a new report by the National Endowment for the Arts, Americans are reading less. And less well.
At this rate, we won’t be able to read the channel guide on Comcast.
The report, “To Read or Not to Read,” gathers statistics from more than 40 studies. Less than one-third of 13-year-olds are daily readers, a sizable decrease in recent years, and among 17-year-olds, non-readers have doubled in 20 years.
And of course, the Pit Bull of Reading Stats: Young Americans average two hours a day of TV watching, and only seven minutes of leisure time on reading.
That ain’t good.
At about the same time, though, the Association of American Publishers reported that book sales this year are tracking about 10 percent ahead of last year. Year-to-date adult hardcover were up almost 15 percent, and year-to-date children’s and young adult sales were up 63 percent. (Cough. Harry Potter. Cough.)
But even factoring out Mr. Potter, we’re buying books at a record clip.
So which is it? Are we in a Golden Age of Books, or the Dark Ages of Reading? Do these two announcements contradict each other? What’s going on? Any theories?
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