Latest Reading Stats

[Andy]

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6630366.html?industryid=47152

The number of adult Americans reading rose to 119 million in 2008, compared to 115.5 million in 2002, according to Reading on the Rise, the latest survey sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts. The population increased by 19 million during that span, however, putting the percentage of Americans who read any book in 2008 at 54.3%, down from 56.6% in 2002.
More people reading, but a smaller percent is reading...

Population increased by 19 million in 6 years?? Holey moley. :O

[Zombified]

54.3 is still an F...

Disappointing to see, but I expected as much from our countrymen.

[Mercy]

That's disappointing.
But in today's society, there's not much time for reading. You have to work so hard to maintain material goods and necessities, especially now.

[Shaun]

Which proves what I was saying all along about all this bullshit about people not reading. Any time a newspaper, magazine, website, etc. gives you a percentage, treat it with a grain of salt because most likely that author of the article is manipulating the data to present a bias. Reading stats are the big one. The New Yorker was wrong about the supposed drastic drop in reading rates, and anyone else who said the same thing were also wrong. Reading has been keeping pretty steady or increasing slightly for decades. The only thing that has changed is the percentage, which is irrelevant when trying to prove that reading is declining. If the actual number remains relatively stead and only the percentage changes, then technically nothing is changing.

[Andy]

Which proves what I was saying all along about all this bullshit about people not reading. Any time a newspaper, magazine, website, etc. gives you a percentage, treat it with a grain of salt because most likely that author of the article is manipulating the data to present a bias. Reading stats are the big one. The New Yorker was wrong about the supposed drastic drop in reading rates, and anyone else who said the same thing were also wrong. Reading has been keeping pretty steady or increasing slightly for decades. The only thing that has changed is the percentage, which is irrelevant when trying to prove that reading is declining. If the actual number remains relatively stead and only the percentage changes, then technically nothing is changing.
Honestly, is it not surprising that a lot of people neither buy books nor rent them from the library?

[Shaun]

These statistics aren't based on sales, though. The sales of books are generally through the roof, with the exception of the last quarter of 2008, which saw a drastic drop due to Bush murdering the economy. Generally speaking more books are sold than are read, in theory at least.

These stats are based on what a supposed representative sample gave as answers to a survey which likely asked them something to the effect of: Did you read a book in the last year?