One in Four Americans Have Not Read a Book in the Past Year

re: One in Four Americans Have Not Read a Book in the Past Year

Azriel — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:59:46 GMT

I find this sad. i read DAILY!! there is always something i want to know how to do or make and the way to learn is reading. online and offline. i read to escape as well. who needs drugs? i read. my fave is Mercedes Lackey Valdemar series. books are great as i can read it, escape to a different world for a while and when i am done i can put the book away and the only side effect is maybe eyestrain and a headache. ok, reading CAN be addictive too. my children read avidly as well. i always told them that whatever they want to learn in life, or build, somewhere someone has WRITTEN down the instructions.

my kids are in the top 99% of readers in the country. i am VERY PROUD of that!! it is unfathomable to me that people don't read more. this article simply blows me away! how can people NOT want to read? to KNOW?

ah well...each to their own i suppose.

Cheers!

re: One in Four Americans Have Not Read a Book in the Past Year

Colin H — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 16:01:55 GMT

"One in four Americans have NOT read a book in the past year" - well, according to the quote that means 75% of Americans are reading. Sounds like a pretty good average to me, considering the average American supposedly spends six to eight hours a day in front of the television. When would anyone have time to read a book under those figures? The validity of polls are questionable at best.

Colin

re: One in Four Americans Have Not Read a Book in the Past Year

Immortal_health — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 02:36:30 GMT

ACtually thats pretty good! I think its so high because 3/4s of Americans have read harry potter 7... sigh...

~Jasper~

re: One in Four Americans Have Not Read a Book in the Past Year

mixxalot — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 12:42:49 GMT

I agree the sad state of youth today with video games and tv instead of communing with excellent books is tragic.

As a kid I had a serious appetite for reading and would read a dozen books over summer break. Even now, I prefer a book most days to a movie.

It keeps me sharp and now I am reading financial investing books like on asset allocation to make wise decisions for retirement as well as books on

health and exercise. I sold my tv a year ago and dont miss it!

re: One in Four Americans Have Not Read a Book in the Past Year

Celtic Wolf — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 11:58:13 GMT

I can't tell you how many books I read a month, let alone a year. My mother and grandfather instilled in me a love of reading and knowledge at a very early age, and for that, I cannot thank them enough. I am at a much higher educational level than most others my age, and I credit this to reading. A good friend, on the other hand, has never liked reading, and as a result, struggles to get passing grades in school. I pity those who don't get an early reading education. They can't ever really have a rich life without it.

re: One in Four Americans Have Not Read a Book in the Past Year

Queen Mab — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 06:50:40 GMT

I think I read too many books these days (finishing a masters thesis just now)... I'm eager to get back into nature for a while!

Needless to say, I am a voracious reader. My 4-year-old loves books too. My husband must always have something to read at the table...

re: One in Four Americans Have Not Read a Book in the Past Year

JanG — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 01:07:28 GMT

I love to read. I take a book with me everywhere. If a doctor keeps me waiting, I take that as an opportunity to read a little more. If I know I'm going to end up standing in a line for an extended time, Ia book comes along. I always take a book in the car with me... Heaven forbid the car should breakdown somewhere and I might have to wait for roadside aid without something to read. :-)

re: One in Four Americans Have Not Read a Book in the Past Year

stoic — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 17:03:19 GMT

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re: One in Four Americans Have Not Read a Book in the Past Year

Katee Roux — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 02:02:02 GMT

I was just reading in Redbook (yes, conventional magazine, but i don't read them often, anymore) about TV & children under 2.

They said that for "white sound" or "background noise" parents often have TV on at the weather channel, or whatever. Most parents don't think their kids are aware of the noise, the kids aren't watching. But the article said that this in the background reduces kids' playtime and attention span.

The short article wasn't clear where it stood. It was mostly along the lines of "I know the APA says no TV for kids under 2, but what planet are they from? A few minutes here & there doesn't hurt." I thought the statement on the background noise & attention span interesting, tho.

re: One in Four Americans Have Not Read a Book in the Past Year

Bridestein — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 21:23:09 GMT

One of the most entertaining and my favorite books to read is the dictionary.

re: One in Four Americans Have Not Read a Book in the Past Year

stoic — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 16:42:27 GMT

Most of my books are still packed, so I can't lay hands on my copy of Nock's wonderful book, but Google turned up this bit of what I had in mind...(Nock predates TV by a long time)
"Having spent more than 40 years reviewing books (to say nothing of editing them and much else besides), I think I know something about texts. One thing I know is that you should hold off on trying to figure out what something means until you're pretty certain you know what it says. In that idiosyncratic masterpiece, The Memoirs of a Superfluous Man , Albert Jay Nock records an anecdote that has some bearing on this:
The ex-president of one of our colleges tells me that for a dozen years he carried on experiments in the value of literacy, using freshman as his guinea-pigs; that is to say, he experimented on persons who were not only literate, but who had gone so far as to pass their entrance-examinations. Selecting a paragraph of very simple but non-sensational prose, he asked his students, taking them one by one, to read it carefully; then to read it carefully again; then to read it aloud to him; then to write down the gist of it in their own words. Hardly any one could do it; hardly any one was able to bring anything like an adequate power of reflective thought to bear upon the substance of a simple paragraph. In other words, they could not read.
"While the ability to read must presuppose literacy," Nock observes, "literacy is no guarantee whatever of the ability to read." When you have Harry Blackmun writing about penumbras and the shadows thereof you have a literate person either unable or unwilling to read what the text under consideration says -- or does not say. Only an expert, a man with years of experience on the bench, could come to such a pass."

here is the link, (see 'The Trouble With Experts', near the bottom...) http://booksinq.blogspot.com/2005_10_01_archive.html

re: One in Four Americans Have Not Read a Book in the Past Year

Islander — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 16:03:52 GMT

OFF TOPIC
I posted here a day or two ago and came back on the 24th, looking for something. To my surprise, in the meantime many of the posts had been dinged between 2 and 5 minus points. Evidently more than one person is reacting negatively to the comments they read. This is especially puzzling given the fact that these comments had no emotional content - they were all simply in support of reading!

I may not agree with everything I see here, but that's no reason to give a thumbs-down. Other than vulgarity, tastelessness or personal insults, I see no reason to ever ding someone. Can I get an "Amen"?

Even better, can those who are awarding the negative points please come forward and explain their rationale?

re: One in Four Americans Have Not Read a Book in the Past Year

Ber — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 13:55:28 GMT

I can't wrap my brain around the concept. We have had the TV for 2 1/2 years. There is nothing on the regular channels, no cable here so mostly it is used for educational videos and series on DVD. Since I live in a library I can't imagine not reading. We are literature-a-holics.

I would be interested in the statistical growth of science with the growth of population. We presently are studying Science History. I know we see science and knowledge seemingly to be booming but relative to the population is it really?

Are most of our geniuses addicted to these video games and TV series? How many have been aborted or become drug addicts. This is NOT politcal but a general query. If you take the population during the four hundred years after the dark ages, the discoveries in science and compare it to todays population would we naturally see massive growth? Is this 'science' boom real? Should it be larger? Is there really a science, overall, boon or is it all our ego?

Inquiring minds.....
Ber

re: One in Four Americans Have Not Read a Book in the Past Year

Patty D — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 13:52:45 GMT

If I were not to read a book in a year, there would only be one explanation...I'm dead. Then again, maybe in Heaven I'd have access to every book my heart desired.

re: One in Four Americans Have Not Read a Book in the Past Year

mmc88121 — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 02:23:15 GMT

I try to read at least one book each week. I would prefer 2-3 but with working it makes it a little harder. I do prefer factual information to fiction, but sometimes you have to watch the accuracy of the factual information presented.

Mary