Quote:
Originally Posted by QuantumIguana
I remember 25 years ago, I was having my stuff packed up because I was getting stationed in Korea for a year. I had a small bookshelf, perhaps 4 feet tall and a couple feet wide, and it wasn't quite full. They guy who came to pack up my stuff talked about how "many" books I had, and said that he read only one book in his whole life. There just wasn't much that I could say about that, so I just let it go and let him get on with his work.
For some people, it appears normal to read no books at all. I've been in people's houses where there wasn't a book to be seen. For others, reading constantly rapidly appears to be normal. 57% of Americans reading 20 or more books a year is a pretty significant number. I wouldn't call reading 19 books a year reading only a few.
I think the belief that in the past, people used to read and read and read is based in judging the population as a whole on what your personal experience was. It's true, in the past they didn't have TV and video games, but there were plenty of other activities besides reading. There was playing outside, for example.
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I've lived for about 15 years mostly in the Canadian Northern Territories, and worked with and around miers and loggers for about 30 years. The percentage of people who read a fair amount seems higher with those who lived or worked in northern regions for more than 30 years, especially among those who lived or worked in remote locations.
Most camps had no TV's and laptops were uncommon and expensive. Electricity was not available at all sites and was sporadic in many. Plus it was a bit cold outside to go out and play after a 12 hour shift pulling 50 lb diamond drilling cores out of the ground or hand piling trees. Several older loggers and miners have told me they learned to read because it was that or play cards, and a guy who could tell stories or would read aloud, rarely had to smoke his own smokes at camp or buy his own beer when he was in town.
Of course this only my personal experience with actual people who had no TVs or video games, and yes I have been in some of those camps.
Helen