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1

I don't believe there was ever a happy time when a large number of people read a large number of books. The time period between the advent of leisure time and the moment there was a television in every house was not really that large, and I imagine most people were just drinking more during those years.

Still, regrettable. I read about 15 books this summer alone.

I thought everybody at least read the last Harry Potter book this year.

Posted by Chris in Tampa | August 22, 2007 2:56 PM
2

Nice! A dig on poetry there at the end just so no one can confuse you with someone actually into how language communicates. Good luck novelists, but God forbid you become poets! I mean, what a fucking waste of time THAT would be! Poetry! Haha! Not like CREATIVE NON-FICTION. It's CREATIVE, but it's NON-FICTION! Get it? Crazy! I love books!

Posted by Travis | August 22, 2007 3:01 PM
3

I've read no books this year. I was the youngest in a single parent invironment. The TV was my babysitter.

I have been eying my copy of Valley of the Dolls for a re-read, though. It's fun to imagine Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, and Paris Hilton as the leads.

Posted by monkey | August 22, 2007 3:02 PM
4

I wonder if they're only counting new books in the "book sales" figure. I usually read at least a couple books a week, but I've bought a couple new books (and one was HP7) in the past year. Too expensive. The cheap ass paperback editions are running, what, $9 now? Maybe it's chicken and egg- the cheap ass editions are the "mass market" ones so their price could be up as booksellers and publishers anticipate/see the market dwindle.

Posted by Avid reader | August 22, 2007 3:05 PM
5

Weirdly, I'm on my third book in a month after probably a year and a half without being able to read more than a paragraph without passing out at bedtime.

Posted by Peter Fries | August 22, 2007 3:09 PM
6

@ #2- Bitter, angry poet = ssssexy!

Posted by misty Brown | August 22, 2007 3:10 PM
7

Most stuff to me, but I have a strong cynical side, just seems like 'hype' wrapped up in a 'deep and thoughtful' bow. One quick instance:

last week I arrived about 30 minutes early for the W Gibson "Spook" reading at U Village. The place just felt so sterile, all the devotees sitting there clapping away on laptops or obediently reading their lapbooks. there is nothing wrong with this, but I get agitated if I'm around a subject, like what Gibson writes about, that gives me jitters. I attempted a few conversations, to no avail, no problem, I did find a pretty cool book to browse on comparisons of Newton's and Goethe's theory of colors.

I headed toward the dvd section and offered praise to the clerk, about how the last time that i was there they actually had in stock "Whatever Happened To BabyJane" the late in life Bette Davis/Joan Crawford thriller, one copy, lucky me. He was like, "Sure, we can almost order anything."
Thinking to myself *does this guy even listen* I said, "Yes, I know I could have ordered it, but you had one on the shelf. That was neat." He gave me a quick stare, cuing me to leave.

I loitered on the outskirts of the now what looked to be the -Gibson Chapel, and blah blah. Then all of a sudden the dvd clerk goes by me, and I see my chance for a early break away from this bookreading prison. I catch up with him and say, "Hey, don't you feel a kind of cyber-vapor in the air?"
Before he shuns me for the last time, I spit out, "I don't want to be a punk or anything (do you see the cyber-punk connection in there?)," but I'm already spooked, and...."

By then I was on the escalator out of the claustrophobia and I believe he was on his way to a triple foam latte to feed his fat gut.

Posted by Garrett | August 22, 2007 3:12 PM
8

Yeah, personally I attribute it to the fact that Americans have had to work six extra weeks per year in order to avoid getting fired in our new globalized economy. I work 40 hours a week; throw in an hour a day for lunch and two hours a day of commuting and who's got time to read a novel? If I want to be entertained I rent a movie.

Otherwise, I read nonfiction.

Posted by Judah | August 22, 2007 3:13 PM
9

Books? Seriously? After spending hours a day reading everything I can online I don't have the patience to sit down and try a novel. I read thousands of books while I was a child, but I don't find them particularly engaging anymore. Still, it isn't like you'd catch me watching TV either. Both mediums are so passive that I'd find myself asleep after a few minutes.

That doesn't even touch on my dislike for the environmental impact of printing all of those books in an age when it isn't necessary. Don't get me started on newspapers and magazines either.

Posted by Ryan | August 22, 2007 3:14 PM
10

Travis, I doubt that was supposed to be a dig on poetry or poets. Since Cienna just finished working as a publicist for Seattle's Poet Populist Program, I'm sure what she meant that novelists, LIKE POETS, could soon be grossly underappreciated. Or maybe she's just a crazy bitch like your mother and all the other women you know or have ever known... sucking your soul through a straw sized hole in her lady bits. Mocking you. Calling you 'Trav' with a sneer instead of TRAVIS which rhymes with 'Clavis' which no one knows...or cares.

I, however, do hate poets.


Posted by katy | August 22, 2007 3:17 PM
11

i want to know who these people in the survey are! i read books! WHY DOESN'T ANYONE EVER CALL ME AND ASK ME IF I READ BOOKS?

Posted by josh bomb | August 22, 2007 3:29 PM
12

I never liked to read books, surely because I was a very attractive child.

Posted by twee | August 22, 2007 3:30 PM
13

do law books count. i'm currently reading "studies in american tort law." it's GRIPPING!

Posted by konstantConsumer | August 22, 2007 3:37 PM
14

I love to be called Trav! And to be sucked up into ladybits! Katy, you sound like a charmer--and quite poetic (straw-like!). Can I offer you a sheaf-o-me-pomes?

Posted by Travis | August 22, 2007 3:38 PM
15

Katy @10. You said what I wanted to in a far, far, better way than I ever could. I too agree that poets and poetry suck more ass than Travis' mom, but I don't think that (burnt) Cienna was trying to say that.

Posted by muckfetro | August 22, 2007 3:42 PM
16

I can't imagine a world where bibliophiles will settle for reading novels on an electronic screen. I like to believe there are enough "aspiring writers" and book nerds in the world to keep the publishing world churning out books. I do hope they get with it sometime soon and make it standard to at least print on recycled paper with non-toxic inks.

Posted by Kim | August 22, 2007 3:50 PM
17

Oops, just remember I read a David Sedaris book a couple months ago when I found out he was coming to town. I should squeeze in another before October.

Posted by monkey | August 22, 2007 3:57 PM
18

I wouldn't mind reading my books on an electronic screen, but I'm not interested in the technology as it stands now.

But nobody's recycling my books!

Posted by Chris in Tampa | August 22, 2007 4:03 PM
19

Four books in a whole year!? I had some vague sense that people don't read all that much, but I'm very surprised by just how little they do. I read a lot, but even my less-voracious friends manage to polish off two or three books each month. And here I was assuming that they were below average...

Posted by Bison | August 22, 2007 4:04 PM
20

I tell my nephew that books have more sex and violence than the worst NC-17 movie his mom wont let him watch. Then I hand him a bukowski or houellebecq or kosinski. and boom he's excited about reading.

Posted by Erin | August 22, 2007 4:12 PM
21

I guess it's kind of ironic then that the best book I've bought lately began as web content (Happy Cruelty Day by Bob Powers, and it's amazing, IMO).

As slow and unfocused a reader as I am, and as much as I have ZERO time to do so, I still love to read - there just isn't a new book I'm interested in released all that often.

Your friend that cutely mentioned "I'm not much of a reader", may have been mugging so annoyingly because he was making a David Spade reference... maybe.

Posted by Dougsf | August 22, 2007 4:48 PM
22

When I heard this yesterday, I wanted to bang my head against the counter and cry... but it's completely believable. I, however, am a big ol' reading fool-- if it's printed, I'll try to read it. It's like when I meet people who say "I haven't read a book since high school". It's not some badge of cool, it's just stupid.

Re: environmental costs of books and having a hard time finding something to read... it's called the library. You read the book, then you give it back, then someone else reads the book. It's some crazy modern marvel. Even crazier, it's free!

At the King County libraries, there's a section up front of new paperbacks (fiction and non) called Choice Reads (my last two picks: Year of Magical Thinking and a book about that plane crash in the Andes in 1972). That way you don't have to venture back into the actual shelves.

Posted by Jessica | August 22, 2007 5:17 PM
23

I'm with Chris in Tampa @1. There are huge swaths of this country that were mostly illiterate until after WWII, such that during the development of the hydrogen bomb, it was not difficult to find people to fill the janitorial positions, despite the fact that illiteracy was a requirement. Radio became widespread before WWII, television after, and quite frankly, I'm pleased that the average American read four books, even if I read that many in a month (except this last month, because Middlesex took forever, and I'm reading His Dark Materials, and while it's technically a trilogy collected into one volume, I still just see it as one thick book, like Lord of the Rings, but not nearly as good).

Posted by Gitai | August 22, 2007 5:28 PM
24

Books are boring. They just sit there. Video games are way way better.

Posted by Gurldoggie | August 22, 2007 5:28 PM
25

@ 24, I love video games, and play them a couple times a week. I'm also heavily involved in a committed relationship, work full time, go to college part time, and take care of a five-year-old girl (who is wonderful).

But I still read a book every day or every other day (disclaimer: nonfiction and serious novels may take an extra day to plough through).

It's just a question of being able to concentrate - and sleeping less.

Posted by Mike L | August 22, 2007 6:03 PM
26

What was the percentage 50 years ago? 100?

Do we have no frame of reference?

Posted by Gomez | August 22, 2007 7:40 PM
27

It is my firm belief that #5 is the Anti Christ.

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28

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29

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30

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