August 24, 2007

Americans Don't Read

A sad truth was revealed last week by an Associated Press poll. One in every four adults in the United States didn't read a single book last year. Not one book. All year. No Harry Potter, no Dummies, no ChickLit. Nothing.

I am totally gobsmacked by this statistic. I don't understand how an adult AVOIDS reading books. How do these people endure long flights without a thriller or a romance? Are they (gasp) using TELEVISION to usher them into dreamland instead of Chaucer? How do they learn nifty new words like gobsmacked? (It means "utterly astounded.")

My ex-brother-in-law, whom we secretly called Meathead, used to brag that he hadn't read a single book since college. Given that his conversation was limited to the topic of his own athletic feats, none of us was surprised.

Personally, I can't imagine a world without books. They have meant so much to me, ever since my sister bought me Little Bear Goes to the Moon when I was in bed with the flu. I've always been able to lose myself in a book, particularly those I loved as a teenager: Gone With the Wind, Hawaii, and Marjorie Morningstar were favorites.

Nowadays, I can't get to sleep without reading a few chapters of something. It's my transition from the real world to the dream world. It's the switch that turns off rational thought in my head. If I can't read, I can't turn my mind off and I'm awake for hours, random thoughts tumbling all over each other inside my head.

Because books are important to me, I'm drawn to people who read a lot. My friends often start a conversation with "What are you reading?" My buddy Tom always has three going at once. One is usually science fiction, often a favorite that he's read several times. He reads at lightning speed and manages to retain every little plot point. When he travels, his carry-on contains at least six books, in case of a flight delay.

The median number of books read per year, according to the AP poll, is nine for women and five for men. By this standard, Tom is a freak of nature. He can finish off a year's worth of reading in a single weekend.

Despite the fact that one-quarter of us don't read any books at all, the publishing industry continues to crank out hundreds of thousands of new titles a year and book sales are holding their own (3.1 billion worldwide last year). Somebody is buying, despite the periodic predictions that technology is killing the book business.

And three-quarters of us do read at least one book a year. The poll showed some interesting statistics. You are more likely to be a reader if you're female, from the West or Midwest, college-educated, and over 50. Hey wait…that's me.