Slashdot Mirror
Americans Read Fewer Books
DesScorp writes "The National Endowment for the Arts has released a study that shows a decline in the reading of fiction, poetry, and short stories. The study began in 1982, but shows a particularly steep decline from 1992-2002, the first decade of the Age of the Internet. They never seem to draw the conclusion that the Net may have accelerated our turn from this kind of reading, but the timing seems suspicious to me. I know I don't read for pleasure as much as I did years ago because of the time spent on the Net (and in technical books). NPR has a good audio link here for you non-readers; the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has a nice article as well." You could also - assuming you read - see the study itself.
Why do you think everyone on Slashdot has to yell RTFA?!?! Oh wait...I think I posted without doing so myself--DOH!
Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.
Why should we read books? It's just a matter of time before they become movies anyhow. America rules.
friends don't let friends use linearly dependent row vectors.
Well, reading any more is such a pain in Braille since I've gone blind from too much pr0n and.. you know.. what goes with pr0n.
Braille ascii pr0n!
English is easier said than done.
Exactly. We've had proof for years that Americans read fewer books - AOL users.
sum 1 can sumarize dis? to much 2 reed. k thx bai.
Its official...
Books are dying!
You're missing the point. This study is obviously biased and funded by Microsoft. You see, a decline in reading paper books, actually helps them sell e-books in ridiculous proprietary formats. Think of the selling point, "no one wants paper anymore, and this proves it, buy our DRM enhanced versions of the classics today!"
This signature has Super Cow Powers
I'm down to about four cheesy SF novels a week now. Back when I was in school (late seventies), it was more like ten. That's a pretty sharp decline, I suppose. :)
9 books? You're not very smart, are you?
little joke....
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
So now is somebody going to tell us there is a PIAA (Publishing Industry Association of America) that is going to start suing big anonymous blocks of IP addresses, under the assertion that rampant online piracy is to blame for a large drop in book sales?
Punctanym: alternate spelling of words using punctuation or numerals in place of some or all of its letters; see 'leet'
My business faces ruin. Book sales have dropped through the floor. People aren't buying half as many books as they did just a year ago. Revenue is down and costs are up. My store has survived for years, but I now face the prospect of bankruptcy. Every day I ask myself why this is happening.
I bought the store about 12 years ago. It was one of those boutique bookstores that sell obscure, independent releases that no-one reads, not even the people that buy them. I decided that to grow the business I'd need to aim for a different demographic, the family market. My store specialised in family reading - stuff that the whole family could read together. I don't sell sick stuff like Stephen King or trashy romance novels, and I'm proud to have one of the most extensive Christian sections that I know of.
The business strategy worked. People flocked to my store, knowing that they (and their children) could safely purchase books without profanity or violent scenes. Over the years I expanded the business and took on more clean-cut and friendly employees. It took hard work and long hours but I had achieved my dream - owning a profitable business that I had built with my own hands, from the ground up. But now, this dream is turning into a nightmare.
Every day, fewer and fewer customers enter my store to buy fewer and fewer books. Why is no one buying books? Are people not interested in literature? Do people prefer to watch TV, see films, listen to music? I don't know. But there is one, inescapable truth - Slashdot use is mostly to blame. The statistics speak for themselves - one in three hours spent reading is spent on Slashdot. On Slashdot, you can find and download hundreds of dollars worth of reading material in just minutes. It has the potential to destroy the publishing industry, from authors, to publishers to stores like my own. Before you point to the supposed "economic downturn", I'll note that the movie rental store just across from my store is doing great business. Unlike text, it's harder to get video clips posted to Slashdot.
A week ago, an unpleasant experience with Slashdot junkies gave me an idea. In my store, I overheard a teenage patron talking to his friend.
"Dude, I'm going to go home and post a comment to Slashdot right away."
"Yeah, dude, that's really lete [sic], you'll get lots of respect."
I was fuming. So they were out to destroy the publishing industry from right under my nose? Fat chance. When they came to the counter to make their purchase, I grabbed the little shit by his shirt. "So...you're going to go home and post to Slashdot, punk?" I asked him in my best Clint Eastwood/Dirty Harry voice.
"Uh y-yeh." He mumbled, shocked.
"That's it. What's your name? You're blacklisted. Now take yourself and your little bitch friend out of my store - and don't come back." I barked. Cravenly, they complied and scampered off.
So that's my idea - a national blacklist of Slashdot readers. If somebody cannot obey the basic rules of society, then they should be excluded from society. If Slashdotters want to steal from the publishing industry, then the publishing industry should exclude them. It's that simple. One strike, and you're out - no reputable bookstore will allow you to buy another book. If the Slashdotters can't buy the books to begin with, then they will become illiterate, and they won't be able to post to Slashdot, will they? It's no different to doctors blacklisting drug dealers from buying prescription medicine.
I have just written a letter to the publishing industry outlining my proposal. Suing Slashdotters one by one isn't going far enough. Not to mention Slashdotters use the fact that they're being sued to unfairly portray themselves as victims. A national register of Slashdotters would make the problem far easier to deal with. People would be encouraged to give the names of suspected Slashdotters to a hotline, similar to TIPS. Once we know the size of the problem, the police and other law enforcement agencies will be force
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How the hell does something skyrocket downward? Just wondering...
You wouldn't need to ask if you'd seen some of the efforts in my model rocketry club.
New York Public Library spokesperson Larry "two-fingers" Benito would only say that they had contacted "our people who deal with this sort of thing", and that he "expected a swift and satisfying outcome" to the suit.
The difference is in what your two students want to do when they grow up...
The 2nd student just wants to be an engineer. The 1st wants to be a patent attorney.