Half of US shuns literature

[Ugg]

A report released yesterday by the US national endowment for the arts says the number of adults who read no literature increased by more than 17 million between 1992 and 2002.

It found that 47% of American adults read poems, plays or narrative fiction in 2002, a drop of seven percentage points from a decade earlier. Those reading any books at all in 2002 fell to 57%, from 61%.

The NEA chairman, Dana Gioia, said the findings were shocking.

"We have a lot of functionally literate people who are no longer engaged readers," Mr Gioia said. "This isn't a case of 'Johnny Can't Read', but 'Johnny Won't Read'.

"We're seeing an enormous cultural shift from print media to electronic media, and the unintended consequences of that shift."

A total of 89.9 million adults did not read books in 2002. The number of books bought in the US in 2003 was reported in May to have fallen by 23m from the year before, to 2.2 bn.

The NEA study was based on a survey of more than 17,000 adults. The drop in reading was widespread, but the fall was marked for adult men, of whom only 38% read literature, and Hispanics overall, for whom the figure was 26.5%.

The decline was especially severe among 18 to 24-year-olds. Only 43% had read any literature in 2002, down from 53% in 1992.


I can't imagine a life without books and know very few people who don't read on a regular basis. Who are these non-readers? What's going on here?

[professor]

I can't imagine a life without books and know very few people who don't read on a regular basis. Who are these non-readers? What's going on here?

What else is new?

[amnesiac1984]

Cafe somewhere in the deep south!

Waffle Waitress: "What you readin' for?"

Bill Hicks: " Well I read for a lot of reasons, and one of them is so that i don't end up being a ****ing waffle waitress!"

Big Hairy Trucker: "Well, it looks like we got ourselves a reader!!"

:p :eek:

[Sayhey]

Cafe somewhere in the deep south!

Waffle Waitress: "What you readin' for?"

Bill Hicks: " Well I read for a lot of reasons, and one of them is so that i don't end up being a ****ing waffle waitress!"

Big Hairy Trucker: "Well, it looks like we got ourselves a reader!!"

:p :eek:

Would that be William Faulkner's or Carson McCuller's deep south? Perhaps just a in southern border state like Mark Twain's? ;)

[amnesiac1984]

Would that be William Faulkner's or Carson McCuller's deep south? Perhaps just a in southern border state like Mark Twain's? ;)

No Idea but it was on Bill Hicks' "Flying Saucer" (presumeably through the areas with high UFO sightings) tour that he came across this waffle house!

[jywv8]

I can't imagine a life without books and know very few people who don't read on a regular basis. Who are these non-readers? What's going on here?

My sister and I are avid readers. My dad reads the paper but only reads books when he's on vacation. A friend of mine has read maybe two books in the past eight years and never reads the paper (very intelligent, college-educated, well-rounded guy, but a big TV watcher...as am I).

Some people just aren't readers. They can't 'get into it'. For example, I can easily become engrossed in a book or a movie and completely lose track of reality for hours at a time, but I can't stand seeing or reading plays.

[toontra]

Wonder if this is the same half that thinks that:

1) WMD have been found in Iraq
2) Iraq was responsible for 9/11

Ignorange (and illiteracy) is a truly dangerous thing.

[themadchemist]

Wonder if this is the same half that thinks that:

1) WMD have been found in Iraq
2) Iraq was responsible for 9/11

Ignorange (and illiteracy) is a truly dangerous thing.

you said a mouthful!

[Thomas Veil]

This news is pretty disturbing. Hell, check out the book and magazine rack at your local grocery or convenience store. Much of it is aimed at a pretty lowbrow clientele. If people find even that kind of dross too challenging to read.... :mad:

But it falls in line with something I read the other day. Author Harlan Ellison mentioned having encounters with people who proudly proclaim that they never read, who insist that they prefer television because TV is entertainment...as if reading weren't also entertainment. Taking that kind of mentality into consideration, the above results are not surprising.

[3rdpath]

it's not surprising...

our nation's leader openly shuns newspapers and other "nuance" type activities...

it's not a coincidence that half the nation doesn't read and half the nation still blindly supports the least successful president in history.

the question is are they the same half of the nation?

i have my theories...

[pseudobrit]

it's not surprising...

our nation's leader openly shuns newspapers and other "nuance" type activities...

it's not a coincidence that half the nation doesn't read and half the nation still blindly supports the least successful president in history.

the question is are they the same half of the nation?

i have my theories...

He's dyslexic. He scans the headlines, then has aides read selected items to him.

Anyway, I'm going back to reading Joyce.

[stoid]

Education is extremely important to my family as nearly all of my aunts and uncles have teaching degrees. We have all got a strong desire to read. Except my little brother, and it's starting to worry us.

[Neserk]

I suspect we need to redefine literature ;) I do more writing now that I spend time on the internet in forums than I have ever done before! I also probably read a lot more. And to be quite honest reading writing at all levels of competency is much more challenging than reading a book from an author who is quite eloquent!