The Atlantic has a story this morning about the decline of reading in America. According to their figures 23 percent of Americans haven’t picked up a book to read in the last year. That turns out to be a huge number of people who haven’t read a book. My figures are really rough, but if you figure the total population at about 300 million people, then that means that 60 million haven’t read a book.
Another 70 to 80 million have only read between one and five books. So that is like 50 percent of the population of the US and that means that half of us have read between one and 5 books.
Wow.
Maybe the average person isn’t going to be able to read everything they need to know if they stumble accidentally into a library or a bookstore, but they certainly can choose a topic and immerse themselves in that one alone. There are books about everything! Choose a topic- there is probably a book about it. That way, when someone from the Pew Foundation, or the Gallup organization asks you in the coming year if you’ve read anything, then you’ll be able to say ” Sure I did!” 🙂
Hey, come to the library and tell me you would like me to read you a book, and I will!
love,
mo
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