posted
I just read this on /., and felt it worthy of Hatrack.
quote: So steep is the decline nationally that the report warns of "an imminent cultural crisis" and offers this startling prediction: "At the current rate of loss, literary reading as a leisure activity will virtually disappear in half a century."
Here (Seattle Post-Intellegencer) is the artcle on how reading in America has stopped. And of course, for those that really want to read it, here (nea.gov) is the actual .pdf publication.
posted
This is why I love the Harry Potter books, even though I didn't love them right away. I always thought they were good, but I was working at B&N when they came out. What a sight, seeing all those kids looking forward to the next book. And the number of kids who showed up at midnight for the release parties!
Anything that can get kids that jazzed about reading is OK with me!
I'm considering making up signs that say "Read a Book" and posting them all over town. My mom think's it's silly. But it couldn't hurt. People are being bombarded with all sorts of other messages all the time. "Work out". "Lose weight". "Buy this". "Vote for that candidate". My take is that if it gets even one person (one easily led person? ) who wouldn't other wise do so to read a book, it can be counted as a success.
Posts: 2454 | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I suddenly see it vitally important that I own a used bookstore.
Also, that's why I love BookCrossing (bookcrossing.com), take a used book and leave it on a park bench for someone else to hopefully pick up and read. Such a simple idea, and yet ingenius. Make the world literate again...one book at a time. Satyagraha
Posts: 359 | Registered: Jun 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
I haven't read the article yet, but any statistic discussing human behavior which begins "if current trends continue" or "at the current rate of loss" is suspect for me The fact that you can draw a line on a graph to describe a trend among humans does not mean that you can continue to draw that same line, with the same slope, into the future and call it a prediction. We're more complicated than that.
Posts: 1907 | Registered: Feb 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
I thought the link between museum visits and volunteer service and reading was interesting. Makes perfect sense to me. In my own experience, I've found people who read to be much more open to new ideas and just more fun in general. I read a ton, and thankfully both of my kids love to read as well.
posted
Forgot to add - Louisville is putting in a Half-Price Books! I'm so stupidly excited. I had really missed that store since we moved from Indiana.
posted
Half-Price Books is awesome! :: bought a copy of the H2G2 radio scripts and a like new leatherbound copy of the completely h2g2 for $10 :: I love used bookstores! The one bookstore I miss the most is Powell's in Oregon...world's largest physical bookstore, four stories tall and a full city block...mmmmmmm.
Geoff: I agree, and three points of data isn't enough to be accurate. However, I do find that there may just be a trend in the lack of reading, especially when in today's generations those that do read are looked down upon as "weird" and "bookworms," it does show some societal trend against reading. Satyagraha
Posts: 359 | Registered: Jun 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
I got called a bookworm for the first time back in 1980 as a fourth-grader. I remember being pleased by the comment. Maybe I've just always been weird.
posted
As Tom pointed out, reading intensely as always had certain connotations with it - perhaps moreso in America which was built on blue collar foundations, although I can't speculate as to the validity of this idea or attitudes in other countries.
We tend as a nation not to take schooling seriously whereas Taiwan, by example, takes it nearly religiously. As does Japan.
posted
Hmm...in that case, it makes me wonder what this glorious literacy rate does if people don't actually apreciate it... Satyagraha
Posts: 359 | Registered: Jun 2001
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
) who wouldn't other wise do so to read a book, it can be counted as a success.
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
The fact that you can draw a line on a graph to describe a trend among humans does not mean that you can continue to draw that same line, with the same slope, into the future and call it a prediction. We're more complicated than that.
![[Dont Know]](graemlins/dontknow.gif)
