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.

Comments

Attention spans

[smilinggoat]

I read alot, particularly content on the web, so I'm not really concerned with our culture becoming "post-literate" because of the decline in novel consumption. The thing I do worry about, however, is attention span. I believe my attention span has dropped thanks in part to sites like slashdot, where you get your morsel of information, feel satiated, and move on.

That said, I believe television to be much more dangerous to the attention span than anything else.

BTW, I just finished The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey. Incredible!

Re:Prices, etc...

[smilinggoat]

Book prices have gone thru the roof in the past 10 years.

Riiiight. It costs so much to walk down to the local public library and check out a few books every now and again. Remember, if you return them on time they're FREE!

Also, I buy used books. They're cheap and have the exact same content.

Re:I read fewer books because

[Nasarius]

GRRM r0x0r3d my s0x0rz as well. I actually got up to the beginning of book 9 in WoT before finally tossing it. Robert Jordan keeps writing the same dull crap, where every female (except Min) is an annoying bitch.

Stuff actually happens in A Song of Ice and Fire, and GRRM can tell a damn good story. His characters are believable, deep, and diverse; you'll remember them, unlike in WoT, where you're buried in a mass of minor characters that you're expected to remember if you want to follow the story. I just wish he'd hurry up with book 4.

Define 'reading'

[The Monster]

I suspect that the reading we do on the Internet doesn't count, perhaps because it's so difficult to quantify, but I suspect it's because of an implicit elitist arrogance:

• PhD's debating sophisticated cultural nuances amongst themselves are 'better' than talk radio/TV
• Newspapers are 'better' than web pages.
• Glossy magazines are 'better' than pulps.
• Hardcover is 'better' than paperback.
• Hand-crafted illuminated manuscripts, slaved over by monks, that could only be owned by the Church or a wealthy nobleman, were 'better' than Gutenberg's mass-produced works that the bourgeoise could purchase.