I found these statistics on reading (thanks to Ron and Andrea, and O'DonnellWeb), which came from a larger group of stats found here, at ParaPublishing. If these are accurate, then:
58% of the US adult population never reads another book after high school.
42% of college graduates never read another book.
80% of US families did not buy or read a book last year.
70% of US adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years.
How very, very sad.
ReplyDeleteI knew that I was more than holding up my share of the burden of keeping bookstores in business! I also know that most of the people I know consider me to be slightly, well what shall we call it: odd, obsessive, fanatical, or something like that, about books and reading. They think it's an outcome of having been an English major. Actually, I think I was an English major because I'm a bibliophile. Unfortunately, as you probably note, I'm still not a perfect at comma placement, but I certainly do my share to keep authors royalty checks rolling in.
ReplyDeleteHow do all those people live?!?!
ReplyDeleteThe 80% figure is the scariest of all. Good grief, no wonder people look at us book lovers strangely so often! Great to find your blog (through LaPaz).
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to point out that these figures are popping up on blogs all over the web and may not be accurate. I have yet to find a link to a source, only links to the same posting on another blog.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who has written about these and similar statistics, I believe the source is the 2004 "Reading at Risk" report by the National Endowment for the Arts. The complete report is available at www.nea.gov/pub/ReadingAtRisk.pdf.
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