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Pew Research: Three-Quarters of Americans Have Read a Book in Last One Year -- 67% in Print Format; Use of Audiobooks Rising (pewresearch.org)
Americans are spreading their book consumption across several formats, and the use of audiobooks is rising, Pew Research said in a report published on Thursday. From the report: About three-quarters (74%) of Americans have read a book in the past 12 months in any format, a figure that has remained largely unchanged since 2012, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in January. Print books remain the most popular format for reading, with 67% of Americans having read a print book in the past year.
And while shares of print and e-book readers are similar to those from a survey conducted in 2016, there has been a modest but statistically significant increase in the share of Americans who read audiobooks, from 14% to 18%. Overall, Americans read an average (mean) of 12 books per year, while the typical (median) American has read four books in the past 12 months. Each of these figures is largely unchanged since 2011, when the Center first began conducting the surveys of Americans' book reading habits.
Despite some growth in certain digital formats, it remains the case that relatively few Americans consume digital books (which include audiobooks and e-books) to the exclusion of print. Some 39% of Americans say they read only print books, while 29% read in these digital formats and also read print books. Just 7% of Americans say they only read books in digital formats and have not read any print books in the past 12 months. Some demographic groups are more likely than others to be digital-only book readers, but in general this behavior is relatively rare across a wide range of demographics. For example, 10% of 18- to 29-year-olds only read books in digital formats, compared with 5% of those ages 50-64 and 4% of those 65 and older.
And while shares of print and e-book readers are similar to those from a survey conducted in 2016, there has been a modest but statistically significant increase in the share of Americans who read audiobooks, from 14% to 18%. Overall, Americans read an average (mean) of 12 books per year, while the typical (median) American has read four books in the past 12 months. Each of these figures is largely unchanged since 2011, when the Center first began conducting the surveys of Americans' book reading habits.
Despite some growth in certain digital formats, it remains the case that relatively few Americans consume digital books (which include audiobooks and e-books) to the exclusion of print. Some 39% of Americans say they read only print books, while 29% read in these digital formats and also read print books. Just 7% of Americans say they only read books in digital formats and have not read any print books in the past 12 months. Some demographic groups are more likely than others to be digital-only book readers, but in general this behavior is relatively rare across a wide range of demographics. For example, 10% of 18- to 29-year-olds only read books in digital formats, compared with 5% of those ages 50-64 and 4% of those 65 and older.
You don't read audiobooks, you listen to them, an entirely different process!
You listen to an audiobook, you can't read it unless it comes with subtitles.
No way I'm buying 74% of all Americans can read, that's impossible.
Reading is hard. Proofreading is even harder.
...my reading list, that is. Some nonfiction I read would include lefties like Chomsky, and factual stuff like books on motorcycles, guns, etc.
Most is in digital, for the convenience.
Treasured volumes, I go out of my way to get in hardback. Eventually. Let's see.. 20 years of Potter, and I still don't have a single dead-tree version of it, it's all in my phone and tablet.
I have just one audiobook, for some strange reason I can't quite get into audiobooks as deep as I get into the "printed" book (paper or screen, don't matter.) I hear the words but they don't stick as well, I don't see the "world" the author's painting as well as I do when it's in visible words.
The "Civilized World" jumped the shark ca. 1973.
Read 52 books last year. Just 2 were paper books. All the rest were Kindle. I just find it easiest to handle while on a cardio machine, using only one hand, and sweating. All means I don't have to make room on a book shelf, fill a landfill, or deal with dropping them off for donation when I'm done.
Right, right, right, if you don't have the money, you have to learn how to do the thing.
If that is so hard, why do you think you should do it?
Audio recording and editing is technical, but it isn't brain science or rocket surgery.
"I need spend moneys `cause I dunnu no how too install opens horse!"
Get you some library, fool.
https://www.mythofcapitalism.c...
This is one helluva read, and the best book I've read since Lundberg's The Rich and the Super-Rich --- and that's quite a compliment!!!!! This books really explains it all (and although I am not in 100% agreement with the authors, those areas I somewhat would correct are just minor quibbles).
I read 18 novels in the C.J. Cherryh Foreigner series for two months last summer. Language, mathematics and aliens. Space opera at its best.
26% HAVEN'T read a single book in the last year.
I know this doesn't represent all reading - my wife, for example, isn't really into books, but reads substantial, magazine-format articles like Science News or The Economist voraciously, pretty much every evening.
But the idea of not reading a book in a year, my delightful spouse notwithstanding, is crazy for me. It's nuts if I haven't finished a book in the past 2-3 days.
-Styopa
I probably average a book a week. Some weeks I don't finish a book, but other weeks I finish two (since I read multiple books concurrently noting the finish date is easiest).
Starships were meant to fly, Hands up and touch the sky - Nicky Minaj
If you read a book you could craft a better title than the steaming piece of shit you wrote.
I'd love to release my novel as an audiobook, but I just can't afford it. I'll have to stay with print and ebook for now.
I'll give you one data point: I will never read your book on print/ebook, but might listen to it as an audiobook. My consumption of fiction has moved almost entirely to audio over the last few years. I just don't have time to sit down and read a book... but I have lots of time where I'm doing something mindless like driving, or mowing the lawn, or shoveling snow, etc. I listen to 10-15 hours per week, which amounts to most of a book per week.
I'm not saying you should make an audiobook just for me... heck I might not buy yours anyway. But I think there is a significant, and growing, market of people like me who you'll never reach in print. That said, please do not record it yourself unless you are good at audiobook reading -- and odds are that you are not. A bad reader can ruin even the best book.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
Unless they're picture books, you can't get to 74% when half the population is illiterate.
From WaPo:
Approximately 32 million adults in the United States can't read, according to the U.S. Department of Education and the National Institute of Literacy. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development found that 50 percent of U.S. adults can't read a book written at an eighth-grade level.
Just another day in Paradise
$2k isn't so bad, if people are actually buying your book, but it's firmly beyond authors who are just getting starting. I find this very annoying for a couple of new authors I like, but who similarly can't afford the step up to audiobooks. I have very little time for reading these days, but listen to books 2 hours a day, so I can only choose a few books that are print (well, e-book) only.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
how we consume data has changed significantly. reading books has huge merits, but we now get so much information and knowledge from reading online news, scientific articles, and so on, that I feel like I am reading all day. Much more so than I read 5-10 years ago. Books synthesize several things together in a cohesive story, but perhaps a lot of folks are growing up with shorter attention spans, and thus, prefer bite size info.
Getting a random sample that is truthful is impossible. Pew claims they aren't seeing this, but nobody I know answers their home phones if it is an unknown number all the time. Telephone polls only get bored people to answer. I was bored today, answered a random phone call ... they were offering to have someone prey with me immediately. As a practising atheist, I was offended by the call and let the person know that after being transferred. They really just wanted a donation. I thought that was illegal.
I routinely lie on surveys if the taker is nice.
If they aren't nice, I'm fairly short with them. It isn't my job to help them with their jobs for free. But if it is entertaining, I will screw with them. That can be fun.
I haven't read a paper book in 10+ yrs. Just don't want the dead trees. My Calibre library has .... let me check ... 665 different books. Many are references for technical or programming stuff. Much more convenient to search ebooks.
I've read about 3 ebooks in the last year. Mostly read all day, just not books. My library makes access to magazine and reference stuff so very easy.
I've listened to at least 12 audiobooks in the last year, perhaps 20. I wouldn't call that "reading." Different parts of the brain are active.
I'm saying the 100% truth above ... honest.
I have been listening to audiobooks for around 20 years. fortunately I have job where I can listen while I work. I found I will listen to audiobooks I would never consider reading and even after listening I still will not read them but I will listen to them again.
What I found interesting, is the way the reader will modulate their voice between characters. You forget the reader is male or female with the way they read for both parts and can easily distinguish the different characters.
From what I heard, Nathan Lowell (https://nathanlowell.com/) self published chapters of his book as self narrated audio books on his own website. Maybe he used $200 worth of gear but I'd be surprised. Once it started growing in popularity he moved into more professional publishing.
can we stop calling audio books a book? since when did listening to someone read count as reading?
lessee...
https://www.google.com/search?...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
As a physical object, a book is a stack of usually rectangular pages oriented with one edge tied, sewn, or otherwise fixed together and then bound to the flexible...
STOP! That's too long!
Siri, show me a book...
(side-note) That website only works with JavaScript enabled. Embarrassing (for those dumb ass devs who apparently conned someone into paying them).
I read for an escape from the fact that the world is shit and I'm powerless to change it and will never get the chance shit on others.
If you're going to recommend anything, at least go for scifi where you might get a chance be the elite: Bobiverse, Murderbot Diaries, or Methods of Rationality.
That says that one-third of all Americans HAVE NOT READ ONE SINGLE BOOK IN A YEAR.
Now, I wonder what the correlation is between those that have not read a book in a year, and supporters of the Malignant Carcinoma in the White House....
I read ebooks on my phone. I can read afew pages while I wait for the kids, I can read on lunch. I read a book or two a week usually.
When I'm driving i use TTS to listen to the book. I don't particularly like audiobooks because they usually have too much production.
Cheap storage VM.
Not sure what you mean by "too much production", unless you're talking about Star Wars books which certainly have silly audiobooks. Most are just a guy reading the book, and trying to do recognizably distinct voices for the different characters.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
My wife is very into audiobooks as well. (She crochets while listening.) And she's also said that she's listened to great books that were ruined by bad narrators. I actually considered doing it myself for a bit. It would be the cheapest route - about $200 in equipment and then a time commitment. Unfortunately, it is also the route that is most likely to result in a bad audiobook. If I ever do decide to do this, I'd rather pay someone with a good voice and a good handle on audiobook production than to make a horrible audiobook in order to save some money,
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
I actually made a "text-to-voice" version of my new book for my son to read along with. (He likes reading along with audiobooks.) It came out sounding like a robot reading my book. Nice for a free version for my son to read, but definitely nothing I'd try selling to people.
I've heard some good audiobooks and some bad ones. The Harry Potter series in audiobook form is amazing. The author does different voices for each character, but never does it come across as cheesy.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
That's exactly the position I'm in. I have one book published and a second almost ready (it's in the beta reader stage). Sales of my first book were horrible (mainly because I stink at promotion and went immediately into writing Book 2). I haven't even made back the $300 that I invested in the first book's production. I definitely can't afford $2,000 to produce a decent audiobook.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.