On page 4 of Publishers Weekly's 11/19/07 issue is the headline: "New NEA Report Finds More Reading Declines." Below, in the News Briefs, is this: "September Store Sales Up." Apparently, bookstores showed an increase in sales for the third month in a row. So, I'm wondering: Are people buying books and not reading them, or are they using bookstores to buy things other than books?
Honestly I think the numbers that say reading is declining are skewed to make us all think that more and more people are stopping reading in the first place. What's most likely happening is that as our population increases, fewer of those new people are reading regularly. So the percentage of readers changes as less people pick up books in the future.
ReplyDeleteThis is just a theory though. The fact that sales of books and the figures saying reading is declining are so very much in opposite directions makes me think that there is more to this than what everyone is saying...