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 last year — half read more and half read fewer. Excluding those who hadn’t read any, the usual number read was seven.
AP via Yahoo! News
NewMexiKen has read seven Harry Potter books alone since April.
Additionally:
Liberals read more books than conservatives. The head of the book publishing industry’s trade group says she knows why — and there’s little flattering about conservative readers in her explanation.
“The Karl Roves of the world have built a generation that just wants a couple slogans: ‘No, don’t raise my taxes, no new taxes,'” Pat Schroeder, president of the American Association of Publishers, said in a recent interview. “It’s pretty hard to write a book saying, ‘No new taxes, no new taxes, no new taxes’ on every page.”
AP via Yahoo! News
I actually find the fact that 75% of people read books surprising. Go to a typical mall and try to picture the people there sitting down and reading. It’s nearly impossible.
I would like to know 1) what qualifies as a “book” and 2) whether there is any objective measurement involved in this or whether it’s based on people claiming to read books.
Remember the episode of The Andy Griffith Show where Gomer joined a computer dating service and answered the question about how many books he read with a really high number, because he read a lot of comic books? I’m guessing there’s a lot of that in this survey.
This may explain some of it: “The Bible and religious works were read by two-thirds in the survey, more than all other categories.”
Nevermind.