Where IS the Advil?

[cleolinda]

You know how you see a movie when you're very young, and you kind of remember key parts but not much else, so when you see it as an adult it's like you've never seen it before? Yeah. One of the Encore channels has been having a Dirty Dancing marathon today.

Comments

[squishysquidgy]

One in four read no books last year. Jigga WHAT?
I'd be one of the one in four, which is weird, because I used to read A LOT, but over the last couple of years, I just can't get into it at all. I have a couple of books that I've read the first few chapters of, but then I start thinking about all the other things I could be doing on the internets and do that instead, and kind of forget about the book. I keep meaning to put more time aside for reading, but I just never get around to it.

[cleolinda]

I don't know, though--a lot of people quoted in the article seemed to be chronic non-readers. I went through a couple of years in college where I didn't crack a single book outside of class, and since I was taking language classes, I wasn't necessarily reading actual narratives as it was. So, I mean, I understand dry periods. But--seriously, one in four?

[particle_person]

The poll data says 73±3% of adults read a book last year, and around 68 to 70% graduated high school in 2004 and 2005. As awful as that figure sounds, it probably says more about our school system then it does about how much people who can read do.

[particle_person]

A nice map I found of high school graduation rates.

[kvschwartz]

One CAN be a reader -- even a "bookworm" -- and yet go years without reading a book. There's plenty online (including the CONTENTS of many a book), and there's no shortage of magazines, be they oriented toward writing and publication, movies, music, news, politics, economics, history, archeology, literary criticism, science, poetry, fiction, screenplays ...

"The New Yorker," for instance, comes out almost every week, and each issue probably has more words than a "typical" book. (Obviously not more than, say, "In Search of Lost Time," but you know what I mean.)

(Oh ... and people who do those "books on tape" ... does that count as "reading" books?)

But I should go read the article instead of talking in the abstract about how people COULD be avid and broad readers without books.

[cleolinda]

" '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."

[kosher_jenny]

I'm thinking he just hasn't found the right book yet!

(although I myself haven't been reading much for fun lately, but I suppose college can be blamed for some of that)