What percentage of Americans do you think read at least one book or e-book, fiction or non-fiction, last year?
A new survey by the National Endowment for the Arts reveals it was 54%.
Thirty years ago, 56% read at least one novel, play or poem per year; by 2012, it was down to 47%.
At MarketWatch.com, Quentin Fottrell commented on reading trends:
"Novels have suffered more than nonfiction in recent years, according to research firm Nielsen.
Total adult print book sales fell 2.5% to nearly 501.6 million in 2013 from 2012; adult nonfiction sales were broadly flat at 225.2million while fiction sales dropped 11% to 103.5 million...
Poetry suffered the steepest decline in readership for any literary genre. Only 6.7% of American adults read poetry last year, versus 12% in 2002, the NEA report found.
On the upside, e-books are helping to offset this trend: 28% of adults read an e-book in 2013, up from 23% the year before, according to the Pew Research Internet Project."
There are lots of possible explanations for the decline. Shorter attention spans, more non-fiction content available via the internet, greater demands being made on our time, more time taken up using social media, the competition from the better offerings available on cable TV, and increasing interest in the sciences vs. the humanities.
For the individual author, there is comfort in the fact that 54% of the population still is a lot of people.
---If you want to write a book, you'll find friendly guidance from idea through to publication in my book, Your Writing Coach, published by Nicholas Brealey and available from your favorite bookseller.
