Washington – Liberals read more books than conservatives.
The head of the book publishing industry’s trade group says she knows why – and there’s little flattering about conservative readers in her explanation.
“The Karl Roves of the world have built a generation that just wants a couple slogans: ‘No, don’t raise my taxes, no new taxes,”‘ Pat Schroeder, president of the American Association of Publishers, said in a recent interview. “It’s pretty hard to write a book saying, ‘No new taxes, no new taxes, no new taxes’ on every page.”
Schroeder, who as a Colorado Democrat was once one of Congress’ most liberal House members, was responding to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll that found that people who consider themselves liberals are more prodigious book readers than conservatives.
She said liberals tend to be policy wonks who “can’t say anything in less than paragraphs. We really want the whole picture, want to peel the onion.”
The book publishing industry is predominantly liberal, though conservative books by authors like former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., and pundit Ann Coulter have been best sellers in recent years. Overall, book sales have been flat as publishers seek to woo readers lured away by the Internet, movies and television.
Rove, President Bush’s departing political adviser, is known as a prodigious reader. White House spokesman Tony Fratto said Schroeder was “confusing volume with quality” with her remarks.
“Obfuscation usually requires a lot more words than if you simply focus on fundamental principles, so I’m not at all surprised by the loquaciousness of liberals,” he said.
“As head of a book publishing association, she probably shouldn’t malign any readers,” said Mary Matalin, a GOP strategist who oversees a line of books by conservative authors, Threshold, at Simon & Schuster.
Matalin said conservatives and others aren’t necessarily reading less but are getting more information online and from magazines.
The poll found 22 percent of liberals and moderates said they had not read a book in the past year, compared with 34 percent of conservatives.
Among those who had read at least one book, liberals typically read nine books in the year, with half reading more than that and half less. Conservatives typically read eight, moderates five.
The telephone poll Aug. 6-8 involved 1,003 adults. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
