Americans Not Reading Books?
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I am reading a poll right now that makes me think about the whole phenomenon of life imitating art. The poll says that one out of four American adults said they don’t even read one book in the span of a year. Actually, of all the people polled, half read less than 4 books a year.
Wow.
I have 9 books at the present time sitting on my bedside table and I am actually involved in three. Yes, I am a multiple book reader, reading more than one book at a time. OK, so not simultaneously, but I begin one book and read it a while, begin a second, sometimes a third and switch back and forth. It keeps things fresh.
One of the books I am reading is the new Jasper Fforde novel “Thursday Next: First Among Sequels”. One of the main plot points is the declining read rate of books. In the book, people cannot be bothered to read when they can watch mindless TV shows and play video games.
As an aside, if you have not read any of Fforde’s books yet, do so now. He is as clever as they come. I love his Thursday Next series. You could start with the first in that collection: “The Eyre Affair”. It’s as though Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett sat down to a buffet of classic literature and just went wild. Toss in a hard boiled female lead and the whole things becomes just that more delightful.
Man, I just opened up Jasper Fforde’s website and realized I’ve not browsed it in years. You can count on my being tied up for at least an hour now 
Children who do not learn to LIKE to read will not do well in school. That’s my opinion. Notice that I did not say children who do not learn to read. Once you hit college, there is SO MUCH reading that if you aren’t used to even reading a book a year, you are going to falter. Frequent reading leads to fluency. Fluency leads to faster reading and better comprehension. You see where I am going.
You know my relationship with books.
They are my pals, my lovers, my…whoa…
Heh.
JMV doesn’t care for reading, but he loves for me to read to him.
It’s sweet.
I must have ADHD really bad, my wife can read a Harry Potter book in a week. I takes me a week to read a 100 page manual, But I can read web post all day long.