Up in Ontario

Books sucking wind in modern times

A friend sent me the following email last week.

Just stumbled on these are completely shocking stats:

Who is Reading Books (and who is not):

• One-third of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives.
• 58% of the US adult population never reads another book after high school.
• 42% of college graduates never read another book.
• 80% of US families did not buy or read a book last year.
• 70% of US adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years.
• 57% of new books are not read to completion. 

I visited the website he referenced on statistics of the publishing industry and discovered a great trove of miscellaneous stats of publishing, a pornographic smattering of numbers from diverse sources.

Among some of the folks I discuss the publishing industry with, it's no secret that the book business is, at best, in a holding pattern. Sales numbers are simply flat while costs continue to rise. For Canadian publishers who rely on exports, the numbers are more grim due to the rising dollar.

But why should this surprise anyone? It's hard to read a book. Compared to the other distractions clamouring for the fearsome, fickle consumer's overwrought attention, reading takes an effort of concentration and time. Any boob can plot themselves in front of a screen for the requisite time - half an hour for a TV show, 2 hours for a movie - or plug into headphones and let the technology do the work. Books require the variable effort of reading - sometimes hard, sometimes easy, but always purposeful.

I'm not saying books are superior or inferior or any other medium is king. I have great respect for strong storytellers in all media. In the parlance of our times, I'm just sayin': you get what you give. And people don't have a lot to give.