Reading?
According to WIRED.COM, Less than half of men 18 to 34 years old surveyed on internet usage by Hall and Partners for Break media made time to read books – 46 percent, to be exact.
I’m tempted to be bothered by this, but honestly, this 46% is a damn sight higher than what I would have estimated. Call me a pessimist, if you must.
While I don’t have any data to back it up, it seems like to me that reading books isn’t a very popular pastime among your Average Joe types. I still remember the blank stare that my own neighbors gave me when upon first meeting them I asked what they liked to read, and I don’t think that they’re anything more or less than your typical Americans.
7 Comments »
Leave a comment
-
People are saying...
-
Archives
- July 2009 (12)
- June 2009 (30)
- May 2009 (16)
- April 2009 (36)
- March 2009 (34)
- February 2009 (39)
- January 2009 (44)
- December 2008 (26)
- November 2008 (7)
- October 2008 (34)
- September 2008 (26)
- August 2008 (70)
-
Categories
-
RSS
Entries RSS
Comments RSS
Sadly this doesn’t surprise me at all. Long ago, I determined I was not in the norm in most regards.
I come from a non-reading family, at least in the ways of fiction (I don’t consider anything Kevin Trudeau writes, for instance, to qualify as reading material…). This is a problem, considering I’m a writer. In fact, one family member congratulated me recently when I informed them I’d sold a short story, thinking it was, in fact, a novel. “Sold your book, eh?”
That people read at all is encouraging, but I think these days there’s a lot of good stuff to be found, for all sorts. And the “culture” of books has a lot to do with where you are, who you’re friends with, and what you relate to (in the South in some places, reading fiction means you’re elite, right?). I’ve always related better to fiction than reality, I suppose!
Wow. Higher than I thought too. But then again you know quite well the intellectual black hole I live in. Though the story itself reminds me of that old Bill Hicks joke “What’re you readin’ for?” etc.
I don’t think it’s just guys. I do a lot of writing for educational publishers, and I was visiting a client once, and a woman designer I was talking to was amazed by some factoid I shared, and she shook her head and said, “Boy — the stuff you know. But then, you read.” (I will say that the editors are all readers, which is a good thing.)
I remember reading somewhere that the average person reads 1-2 books a *year*.
I average 3-5 a month, and that’s just FICTION.
Apropos, they recently played on the radio Jimmy Durante singing “I’ll Never Forget the Day I Read a Book.”
[...] turn their attention away from the glare to read a book. 46 percent read books — I agree with Matt Staggs, that sounds pretty [...]
Pingback by carolyn kellogg » Blog Archive » The reading habits of dudes | October 10, 2008 |