I must be reading for a heck of a lot of people. Four is the average, huh? I read more than that in a month! One of my biggest frights as a child was the Burgess Meredith twilight zone where he breaks his glasses. *laugh* I just can't imagine life without books.
I like to think there will always be readers. There have also always been non-readers -- think of all the characters in Austen novels who don't want to read. Never her heroines, of course -- it's a stretch writing a character who doesn't read (believably, at least). There's so little vocabulary to use!
According to this article, most women prefer fiction. While I do enjoy my fantasy, horror and sci-fi, I still read way more non-fiction than anything else.
Only one in four claims not to have read anything? In my office of eight people, there are only two of us who ever read anything for pleasure. As a writer and as a person who grew up in a family of readers (my grandpa, who had developed aphasia as a consequence of a head injury during WWII, and for whom reading was therefore quite difficult, still read a few war stories and John Iriving novels), I'm utterly and completely baffled by this behavior. And as a writer, it distresses me that the number of people who will be buying my books in the future is apparently going down.
It seems to me that the statistics have remained the same over the last decade or so- I wasn't surprised by the one-in-four. The reasons for not reading have changed, but there have always been those who won't consider reading anything more substantial than a newspaper or a magazine.
Writers take heart: for those who won't pick up a book, there are those like myself and others that read constantly and with great gusto.
I find it more distressing that people believe print is going out....not all of us want to read ebooks!
Well, millions (or even billions) of books go into print ever year, so the corpse seems rather lively.
I think the poll only measured book reading: how much reading have they missed? In addition to newspapers and magazines, there's the web! I think people are reading more now than ever. Just in less conventional ways.
6 comments:
I must be reading for a heck of a lot of people. Four is the average, huh? I read more than that in a month! One of my biggest frights as a child was the Burgess Meredith twilight zone where he breaks his glasses. *laugh* I just can't imagine life without books.
This is why writers love readers like you.
:-)
I like to think there will always be readers. There have also always been non-readers -- think of all the characters in Austen novels who don't want to read. Never her heroines, of course -- it's a stretch writing a character who doesn't read (believably, at least). There's so little vocabulary to use!
And yet again, I break from the female "norm."
According to this article, most women prefer fiction. While I do enjoy my fantasy, horror and sci-fi, I still read way more non-fiction than anything else.
But then again, what do "they" know?
Only one in four claims not to have read anything? In my office of eight people, there are only two of us who ever read anything for pleasure. As a writer and as a person who grew up in a family of readers (my grandpa, who had developed aphasia as a consequence of a head injury during WWII, and for whom reading was therefore quite difficult, still read a few war stories and John Iriving novels), I'm utterly and completely baffled by this behavior. And as a writer, it distresses me that the number of people who will be buying my books in the future is apparently going down.
It seems to me that the statistics have remained the same over the last decade or so- I wasn't surprised by the one-in-four. The reasons for not reading have changed, but there have always been those who won't consider reading anything more substantial than a newspaper or a magazine.
Writers take heart: for those who won't pick up a book, there are those like myself and others that read constantly and with great gusto.
I find it more distressing that people believe print is going out....not all of us want to read ebooks!
Well, millions (or even billions) of books go into print ever year, so the corpse seems rather lively.
I think the poll only measured book reading: how much reading have they missed? In addition to newspapers and magazines, there's the web! I think people are reading more now than ever. Just in less conventional ways.
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