Americans are reading fewer books

[DiapDealer]

Don't forget the fact that language and definitions themselves do not remain stagnant (even if we might want them to).

I just find it odd whenever someone wants to draw a very public line in the sand about what "reading" is and isn't--and will argue to death that there is no wiggle room whatsoever. But those same people usually won't say a word whenever people talk about "dialing" a phone number.

When someone asks me if I've read 'Book X', I'm never going to say "no, but I listened to it." I'm going to say "yes" (or no) and get to the part of the conversation that actually matters: what we thought about 'Book X'. How we might have described our "consumption" of 'Book X' is actually quite meaningless in the grand scheme of things.

[LDB]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I'm never going to say "no, but I listened to it."

Me either. I'd just reply "I listened to it." Leads to an even more accurate conversation that way.

[Joliet Jake]

I think I'm unusual in being a bookworm. I know a lot of younger educated people who don't read books and think it's unusual when I'm reading an ebook. I do find, when looking for info as well as entertainment, that I watch a lot of Youtube videos during this pandemic. (I try to stay clear of political videos, as I don't want "the algorithm" to rewrite reality for me.) I find I absorb info better when reading, and I can read much faster than people can talk (most of the time). I know many tech-illiterate people, who don't like reading, who nonetheless watch a lot of Youtube videos.

Originally Posted by hobnail

Yeah, I had a coworker like that. He never read a book unless it was necessary for work, and before that for school. I was gobsmacked. And he said he didn't watch TV but he did spend a lot of time playing computer games.

I have coworkers with a similar attitude toward computers. They're needed for work and nothing else.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Joliet Jake

I have coworkers with a similar attitude toward computers. They're needed for work and nothing else.

Well, looks like they are handy for accessing Mobileread

[DuskyRose]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I just find it odd whenever someone wants to draw a very public line in the sand about what "reading" is and isn't--and will argue to death that there is no wiggle room whatsoever. But those same people usually won't say a word whenever people talk about "dialing" a phone number.

Yes, I find it odd as well. Not everything can fit into those little boxes we all seem to want to use to make life tidy.

I think that most people don't realize how many different ways brains are wired. For example, I'm a bookworm, yet don't get into audiobooks that much. When I read text, I usually visualize the scene in my head, and quit seeing the words. A poorly written fiction will keep throwing me out, and ruin my visuals. Audiobooks will put me to sleep unless I'm walking the dog while listening, or on a road trip.

Hubby, OTOH, can't do that. He says he can't even imagine what it's like to 'see' the action in his head. He hears the words when he reads as a voice, and has a condition where he won't actually see all the words in a sentence anyway. (It's not dylexia we don't think, but he's never followed up on testing.) Something to do with poor connection between the left and right hemispheres of the brain. So he doesn't read for pleasure, and when he was in college I read most of his heavy reading out loud for him. But he LOVES audiobooks, and is a bit of a snob in that he wants real human voices. So we have duplicates of some favorite genres, text and audiobook, if we're both going to read it.

(I hang around Amazon, he hangs around Audible, and we recommend books to each other.)

To me, they're both reading. We both absorbed the story in different formats, but it's still reading. When someone asks him if he's read a specific book, he'll say yes. Then they can talk about the story.

I really doubt anyone cares if he read it from a physical book, an audio book, or an ebook. They're still talking about the same story.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

Abelist, much? Why are you trying so hard to police how people with disabilities consume content that they literally cannot every consume by your definition of reading? None of us sighted folks have any business telling those with limited or no sight whether or not they are "reading" a book just because they do it differently than we do.

Also, I don't know why you feel that "touch" as reading qualifies it to be reading more than hearing.

Audiobooks are cheaper to buy than braille books, easier to store, and easier to find. This also ignores those who lose their sight later in life and are too infirm or otherwise incapable of learning how to read braille.

My mother has macular degeneration and loves to read. She now reads audiobooks through National Library Service in conjunction with the State of Georgia. All states have this service for those who are legally blind. They provide free audiobooks and a player. The books come in the mail, and they send enough to keep her reading until the next batch arrives. They also provide free mailers to return the books once you have finished them. They will also provide Braille books for free too. If you know anyone who is legally blind and likes to read help them sign up for this wonderful service.
Apache

[Elfwreck]

The article's got some fascinating numbers.

The share of Americans who said they read more than 10 books over the course of the previous 12 months dropped from about a third of Americans (34 percent) in 2016 to just more than a quarter (27 percent) in 2021.

The average American consumed 12.6 books last year, down from 15.6 in 2016 and 14.2 in 2005. At peak consumption, in 1999, the average American reported getting through 18.5 books.

1. Only 27% read more than 10 books in the past year.
2. Average books-per-person is 12.6, so... less than 1/4 of the people are reading the "average" number.

Note that the survey question (source) is "During the past year, about how many books did you read, either all or part of the way through?"

So it's not even, "average reading rate is 12.6 books/year." It's "average reading rate involves starting 12.6 books/year."

(Meanwhile, ParanormalRomances Georg is out there zipping through 4 Kindle Unlimited books/day and throwing off the averages.)

Statistics about "how many books did you partially read in the last year" are not particularly useful anymore; they don't tell us anything about the state of literature in the US.

In the 90s, people who didn't read books sometimes read magazines or newspapers, but mostly got their entertainment & education from tv, movies, or radio. Today... a person can "not read books" but still spend a substantial amount of time reading both fiction and nonfiction.

OTOH, we have a growing number who don't read much of anything, because they don't have to, and because schools have no idea how to teach "books are one type of information & entertainment media among many; here's how to get the most out of them" instead of "you should read books to learn and also for fun."

[spacepope]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

OTOH, we have a growing number who don't read much of anything, because they don't have to, and because schools have no idea how to teach "books are one type of information & entertainment media among many; here's how to get the most out of them" instead of "you should read books to learn and also for fun."

This is something I suffer from. I graduated high school a decade ago at this point, but I really hated that books were only shown to be something you consumed for deeper meaning, allegory, etc. Yes, books can provide that and I do pick up on the themes when I'm reading casually, but writing a 5 page essay about how X is Y in this century-old book when you're a 15 year old did much to kill my interest.

I don't think that reading shouldn't be assigned in school, but I think it would have been a lot more fun if we had more latitude in what we got to read and been allowed to read more modern, popular things. There were definitely classic books I enjoyed in high school, but I think I would have had more interest in what I was reading if the class just offered a list of 5 books, a short summary, and you got to pick which was the most interesting to you.

Just a thought

[ekbell]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

Statistics about "how many books did you partially read in the last year" are not particularl
y useful anymore; they don't tell us anything about the state of literature in the US.

In the 90s, people who didn't read books sometimes read magazines or newspapers, but mostly got their entertainment & education from tv, movies, or radio. Today... a person can "not read books" but still spend a substantial amount of time reading both fiction and nonfiction.

This thread has reminded me of my Year of Stress where all I read was fanfiction. I'm not sure I'd have thought to include those among books I read despite the fact that many of them are as long and as well plotted as your average fiction book.

Even now my fiction reading slot is still mostly taken up by fanfiction, I've just vastly increased the amount of nonfiction I read.

[DuskyRose]

Originally Posted by ekbell

Even now my fiction reading slot is still mostly taken up by fanfiction, I've just vastly increased the amount of nonfiction I read.

Same with me, for a few years. I had some really good fanfic wallows going on. I'm back into mainstream fiction now, but have another huge stash of fanfic waiting to go.

I wouldn't have counted those as 'books' either.

[Bembo]

It's interesting that the drop was quite prominent for college graduates. I'd guess a lot of this population is now preferring other forms of convenient media consumption, e.g. streaming devices, podcasts, etc. In that respect I'd guess books have stiff competition from these. I know I find it hard to balance streaming and books, and I'm not even that intense of a TV/movie watcher.

[Iridescent]

I can totally believe it. With our busy lifestyles (even globally), I can imagine reading has decreased a bit. I often find it hard to fit in a leisure read into my schedule. With school, earning money to take care of my family, dealing with life's randomness that pops up, as well as taking care of kids, trying not to drown in chores, etc. I am lucky if I get a few minutes to read a book that I would like to read. By the end of the day, I'm usually too tired to do much else.

[azayn]

Originally Posted by Paperbackstash

Unfortunately most people rarely read for fun. This doesn't include those who reads for the news, sports, or gaming guides and magazines. There's nothing wrong with the second group either, but just for fun reading a book? That's not an especially popular hobby with large chunks of the population. Boy, they're really missing out, aren't they?

Our modern culture simply isn’t conducive to reading for pleasure. Social media, video games, Netflix, etc. are all huge distractions that get in the way of reading even for somebody like me who enjoys it. Not to mention attention spans have shortened as a result of technology and it’s no wonder people aren’t inclined to read anything longer than a Facebook post or a news headline.

I grew up in the 80s and 90s before the advent of the internet. Back then, there were far fewer things competing for your attention and the dearth of entertainment options made it easy to pick up reading as a hobby. My wife, who grew up outside the US, was an avid reader back home as TV and internet access were limited. Books were the most convenient entertainment option there. But she hasn’t been able to rekindle the same enthusiasm for reading now with a gazillion Netflix shows and movies at the tip of her fingers. I suspect this is the case for most folks. They either moved on from books or never cultivated a love for reading in the first place.

To be honest, I don’t think I would have become a reader either if I were a kid growing up today.

[azayn]

Originally Posted by spacepope

This is something I suffer from. I graduated high school a decade ago at this point, but I really hated that books were only shown to be something you consumed for deeper meaning, allegory, etc. Yes, books can provide that and I do pick up on the themes when I'm reading casually, but writing a 5 page essay about how X is Y in this century-old book when you're a 15 year old did much to kill my interest.

I don't think that reading shouldn't be assigned in school, but I think it would have been a lot more fun if we had more latitude in what we got to read and been allowed to read more modern, popular things. There were definitely classic books I enjoyed in high school, but I think I would have had more interest in what I was reading if the class just offered a list of 5 books, a short summary, and you got to pick which was the most interesting to you.

Just a thought

This was definitely true for me. High school English and to an extent college, killed my love of reading for a while.

Later on, I revisited some books from high school literature and realized that I still disliked them as an adult lol

[Bembo]

Originally Posted by azayn

Our modern culture simply isn’t conducive to reading for pleasure. Social media, video games, Netflix, etc. are all huge distractions that get in the way of reading even for somebody like me who enjoys it. Not to mention attention spans have shortened as a result of technology and it’s no wonder people aren’t inclined to read anything longer than a Facebook post or a news headline.

I grew up in the 80s and 90s before the advent of the internet. Back then, there were far fewer things competing for your attention and the dearth of entertainment options made it easy to pick up reading as a hobby. My wife, who grew up outside the US, was an avid reader back home as TV and internet access were limited. Books were the most convenient entertainment option there. But she hasn’t been able to rekindle the same enthusiasm for reading now with a gazillion Netflix shows and movies at the tip of her fingers. I suspect this is the case for most folks. They either moved on from books or never cultivated a love for reading in the first place.

To be honest, I don’t think I would have become a reader either if I were a kid growing up today.

I have noticed this with my niece. Both my niece and nephew are very adept at using their tablets and surfing Youtube, apps, etc. Way more than I was at that age, and I'm only about a generation and half behind them, so I grew up with personal computers but not iPads. Either way, they don't seem to care for reading much. My niece saw me reading sometimes, and once I think even imitated me reading on the porch, but didn't seem to be actually invested in books like I was at that age.