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. That choice by Bustos and others […]
Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007
One in Four Read No Books Last Year
Author: ALAN FRAM
Source: The Associated Press
Publication Date: Tue Aug 21, 1:58 PM ET
Link: One in Four Read No Books Last Year
Source: The Associated Press
Publication Date: Tue Aug 21, 1:58 PM ET
Link: One in Four Read No Books Last Year
Stephan: Forty three per cent of Americans, believe the world was created 6,000 years ago. All media is now focused mostly on sensoids rather than data, and now we learn one quarter of us don't read books. We get the kind of government we deserve; have we become a land of Homer Simpsons? It seems so. The AP-Ipsos poll was conducted from August 6 to 8 and involved telephone interviews with 1,003 adults. It had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.