The National Endowment for the Arts issued a report yesterday titled Reading on the Rise, which showed that more Americans have their noses in books. Kinda.
The percentage of adults who’d read a novel, short story, play, or poem in the last 12 months climbed to 50.2 percent. That’s up from 46.7 percent in 2002. Good news. One reason for the increase perhaps is that the ’08 survey, unlike its ’02 counterpart, included reading done online.* (Note: If people want to read Longfellow on their laptop, that’s cool by me.)
However, deeper in the report, is a more cautionary datum — and our factoid of the day. The percentage of adults who in 2008 read any book, fiction or nonfiction, not required for school or work fell to 54.3 percent. In other words, last year 45.7 percent of American adults did not read a single book in their discretionary time.
*{Update: 1/14, 10pm — Sunil Iyengar, director of Research & Analysis at the NEA, just emailed to clarify the point I made in the second paragraph above: “Actually, we never have excluded online reading from our earlier surveys; the interview question is worded so that reading in any format (whether print or online) can be counted in the total rate. In 2008, we did ask new questions related specifically to online reading – but those questions came much later in the survey and in no way influenced our reporting of the overall literary and book-reading rates.” Thanks, Sunil.}
Sir,
When I hear that 45.7 percent of American adults did not read a single book in 2008, it did not surprise me – but validated what I see and hear. I find it very difficult motivating my family and friends to read books that i think would change their lives – to a greater of lessor degree. How do you explain this startling statistic? That is, what are the barriers that prevent people from picking up a book to read – i.e. price of a book?
Many thanks,
Dana Ly
<<>>
Dana —
Great question. I can’t imagine that price is the barrier for most people. The typical paperback costs about the same as two or three lattes. Plus, most people in the U.S. are within driving distance of a public library, where they can read books for free.
My guess — and it’s only a guess — is that it’s partly social. That is, if a kid doesn’t grow up around books, or see adults in his life reading, he’s much less likely to adopt the habit himself. Meanwhile, if an adult (young or old) isn’t around people who are reading, she might not read either. Again, it isn’t that she somehow hates reading. It’s that there are no signals in her world that reading is something worthwhile to do.
But again, that’s a guess. Very curious to hear what others think.
Dan,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I absolutely agree with you that money cannot be a factor. Maybe with the proliferation of online reading – blogs, articles, and instant messaging – people are more accustomed to reading shorter content: they are used to skimming. That is, their attention span is much shorter. For instance, I have a friend who is a huge Leo Tolstoy fan who could previously spend hours cruising through his classic works, but recently found it challenging getting through the same books. What do you think?
Dan, I’m sure all your followers are curious what books you’re currently reading and the books that have really shaped your worldview. Could you be kind enough to share this with us?
Dana —
On your friend’s condition, check out this article: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google
I’ll post some books over the next few weeks.
-dp
Dan;
Great topic. I agree that if you grow up or live in an environment that nurtures reading, that will carry over into your personal life. My wife and I are both voracious readers and it was a happy day in our house when our young son remarked that he couldn’t wait to be able to read like mom and dad. Now teenagers, both of our kids love books.
As to why people of any age don’t read, the most common response I receive is a simple, “I just don’t like to read”, from my adult friends or, “It’s boring”, from the younger set. The harsh critic in me wants to immediately chalk those kind of responses up to laziness and a lack of imagination, but I know that’s not always true.
Some use the lack of time as a reason, but when you see how much of it they spend in front of the TV, it sounds more like a lame excuse. And for those not already motivated to read, cost can be a reason. It’s also been my experience that among those who cite cost as a factor, a good number of them look at a trip to the public library as a negative experience.
Who knows? Maybe us bookworms are over thinking the whole thing and it’s simply a case of “you say to-mah-to, I say to-may-to”!
I find it shocking at first pass to hear so many people have not read a book all year. Everyone in my greatly extended family reads – a lot. I do know people who say they don’t like to read, but even they read a book or two a year on some subject that interests them. Time and money are just lame excuses. I am wondering if it is just that 47% of our population does not have the ability to read? Is this really possible? It would be shocking if that were they case. Reading simply provides a relaxing getaway, or a great stimulus, depending on they type of book read. And we all need both kinds. Our lives are so much richer for the effort.
Now, if I may, suggest my book of the year, even though it is only January. Proust was a Neuroscientist, by Jonah Lehrer.(http://www.amazon.com/Proust-Was-Neuroscientist-Jonah-Lehrer/dp/0547085907/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231962519&sr=1-1)
This is a truly amazing book, and provides great insight to the works of all types of artists and artistic activity.
I wonder, does this data track people that ‘read’ audio books? Since I now carry my iPod (iPhone) around with me all the time, I find I get through most books, including Dan’s via downloads from Audible.com and iTunes.
I have a feeling that these markets are taking off quickly. I have got several of my friends reading a lot more now that I got them hooked on this new way to read while doing other activies (esp. exercise). It certainly has increased my reading per year about 1000%
Thanks Dan for the great insight.
I could be an exception to the other people’s comments. I was never around a lot of people that read books, I never used to finish a book from cover to cover, and always thought that I should be doing something else or just “not enough time”.
Fast forward til now. I now read one book a week, implement what I read as soon as possible, and even recommend books to my colleagues and friends regularly.
I resolved my issue with one trick – speed reading.
With the technologies I have learned, I am now able to go through books faster and retain more information than if I read at the old pace. Trust me, this works. I first felt that I was not retaining the information until I was able to share it with others, and had my ‘a-ha’ moment. That kept me going, and I was hooked.
I now love to read, because I get to share with people something about the World they never knew it was there before.