Via Betty, I learn the shocking news that
One in four adults say they read no books at all in the past year, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll released Tuesday.
Not a single book. I’m no stranger to the fact that people are reading less and that book sales are not exactly booming. But seriously? Not one book in a whole year? You could read just one page a day, and you’d still be able to get through at least one book.
Twenty-seven percent of Americans… That’s roughly the same percentage who still approve of President Bush. Coincidence?
Wait, are you shocked that 73% of adults finished a book because you expected the number to be higher or lower?
Considering that as of ’03, (the most recent year I could numbers for in less than rigorous searching) 15% of people 25 or over hadn’t finished HS, and only 25% had finished college, the new survey doesn’t seem that shocking. Though based on the NEA’s 57% figure for ’02 in the article, 73% does seem surprisingly high.
I guess I’m shocked only because I’m a reader and can’t imagine not reading. I can imagine circumstances under which I’d read less, or even very little, but not nothing. Maybe I’m just living in my little bookish bubble, though.
The article doesn’t say if the poll considered only adults who could read and chose not to. Which I think is maybe a big factor.