I realize I’ve done a lot of posting today, but I was shocked enough to deem this blogworthy. According to an AP poll one out of every four american adults went all of last year without reading a single book. I guess that’s what you can expect when you’ve got a president who goes around boasting he’s too busy to read?
I’m not even here to knock the non-readers. I know plenty of intelligent, worldly people who claim to be too busy to read (and some of them actually are), but god damn… one in four?? I’m mystified. What about feeding your imagination? Expanding your vocabulary? Losing yourself in a beautifully written world for hours at a time? Surely it still has merit?
Or has society become so lazy and so hungry for instant gratification that the average reader can’t sit through anything longer than a Friends rerun? Wait, don’t answer that… I don’t think I want to know.
Sincerely,
B. (aka - girl who always has her nose buried in a book)
WASHINGTON - There it sits on your night stand, that book you’ve meant to read for who knows how long but haven’t yet cracked open. Tonight, as you feel its stare from beneath that teetering pile of magazines, know one thing - you are not alone.
One in four adults say they read no books at all in the past year, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll released Tuesday. Of those who did read, women and seniors were most avid, and religious works and popular fiction were the top choices.
The survey reveals a nation whose book readers, on the whole, can hardly be called ravenous. The typical person claimed to have read four books in the last year - half read more and half read fewer. Excluding those who hadn’t read any, the usual number read was seven.
“I just get sleepy when I read,” said Richard Bustos of Dallas, a habit with which millions of Americans can doubtless identify. Bustos, a 34-year-old project manager for a telecommunications company, said he had not read any books in the last year and would rather spend time in his backyard pool. …
It’s a shame, yeah? That’s why I always try to give books as presents. To G and my Mom…but honestly, even that doesn’t work. For example, when I give my Mom books that I think she will enjoy, I end up reading them, years later….after they’ve served as coasters on the table.
Wow! That is simply ridiculous. I think I read six or seven baby books alone last year! LOL! Even with the baby, I find time to read a chapter or two a day! Yes, there are other things I could do during that time, but I need to feel like I am expanding my mind in some way or another.
My husband on the other hand… he reads books when there is no internet… on long trips… I think he probably does make it to about four or five a year, depending on the country he is in.
I’m not sure what Bush has to do with the lack of reading, isn’t it a parent’s responsibility to get kids to read? Start reading to them when their small, get interesting books and absolutely no tv. That’s what my offspring did with his boys and they all read. I just heard something about tv for babies? Supposed to make them little Einsteins or something? That’s nuts, in my view only….ciao
What I LOVE about GWB’s comments on lack of reading time, his friggen WIFE is an elementary school LIBRARIAN!!! People might criticize Hillary for the “bargain” of her marriage to Bill, HOWEVER no one can convince me that Laura Bush didn’t sell her soul when she married George! She should be ashamed of comments that disregard reading…then again, look what his father’s comments about broccoli did…crazy, crazy crazy!
I’d be lost without books-I give them at Baby Showers to get those “have to have the latest gadget Mommas” the very obvious reminder that wipe warming boxes really aren’t going to be their child-to-be’s best friend! The reaction is always the same, “Oh, why didn’t I think of that?” and always surprises me because it’s such a simple yet personal gift choice…How proud am I that (while we’ve all taken turns reading it to him) our 7 year old is on page 16 of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows! Enough ranting for today! I’m off to read my latest: The River Wife by Jonis Agee!