Like many of you, I own an inordinate number of books.
On occasion, I even read one or two.
Most of my books, however, are simultaneously picked at, scattered across the far ends of my home, packed in boxes, heaped on nightstands and utilized as coasters.
With so many books around, I was mildly surprised to read a recent Associated Press-Ipsos poll that suggests that 27 percent of Americans confessed they hadn’t bothered to read a single book last year.
A third of all males were non-readers; a quarter of females were. Not surprisingly, non-readers tend to be less educated and have low income. They also tend to be older.
Folks in the West and Midwest are more likely to have read at least one book in the past year. The Bible and other religious texts were read by two-thirds of the people in the survey; that category of book topped all others. Or so they claim.
Conservatives read slightly less than liberals; moderates read slightly less than both. Which, as you can imagine, was a good opportunity for some cheap political potshots. (As one of the knuckle-draggers on the right, I’m not sure what to make of such claims, other than to suggest the next poll might measure books by poundage rather than number).
Cathy Langer, a member of the American Booksellers Association and an employee of the famed Tattered Cover Book Store since 1977, says she’s not overly concerned about polls that suggest bookdom’s demise.
“It’s really hard to measure,” she explains. “Yes, statistics are showing that there is not a great growth in book buying. It increased a little last year, not hugely, looking at some of the recent surveys that have felt disturbing. When you look closely, it’s not nearly as bad news as (it’s) being presented.”
A 2004 National Endowment for the Arts report, “Reading at Risk,” claimed that only 57 percent of adults had read a book in 2002. This was a 4 percentage point drop from a decade earlier. The poll blamed TV, movies and the Internet.
With the bevy of distractions we deal with, it’s not unimaginable that we read fewer books. I am glued to my screen all day long – reading.
Langer claims that many of these polls are more literature- focused, making it difficult to gauge how many people are actually reading books.
“I have seen a shift towards more political books and history books,” Langer explains. “I don’t like to overly generalize, but more men read nonfiction. … Many people are trying to get a handle on everything that’s going on in the world, and they feel they can get it through nonfiction and history titles.”
Langer emphasizes, however, as any good fan of literature should, that often there is a greater inherent truth to be found in literature.
Polls, I would add, are inherently untruthful. How can we trust what people tell us about their reading habits? They tell us what we want to hear.
Two decades ago, journalist Michael Kinsley performed a non-scientific experiment. He slipped dozens of self-addressed cards into best-selling titles of the day in various Washington, D.C., bookstores.
If you found the note, which would have meant you’d read at least half of the book, you would collect a $5 reward. After five months, no one had claimed their prize.
We own books for many reasons. And maybe a better question to pose would be: How many books have you started to read? Or how many books do you plan on reading?
With the success of the Tattered Cover, major chain outlets and the used-books stores that litter the Denver area – not to mention, the packed libraries – I have a difficult time believing the end of the book is near.
“The book is always going to be an important vehicle for information and pleasure,” says Langer. “Certainly, everyone in this business is looking at the future and looking at the delivery system – not what they’ll be reading but how they’ll be reading it. A book is a perfect piece of technology. It’s portable. It’s relatively cheap. Easy to use. And we think it will always have a place.”
As long as reading is intellectually fulfilling (and can substitute for a coaster), I agree.
David Harsanyi’s column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Reach him at 303-954-1255 or dharsanyi@denverpost.com.
