The graphic accompanying this piece states some awful facts about modern-day America.
Of course, if you’re reading this piece, the odds are you aren’t part of the problem and in fact might find the information as horrifying as I do.
Americans simply don’t read anymore.
Many of them can’t read. I have quoted information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics about the actual rate of illiteracy before, numbers showing that 20 percent of adults are basically illiterate and another 20 percent aren’t literate enough to handle jobs like shift supervisor at a fast-food restaurant.
Of the numbers above, only one is misleading to me. It may be true that 70 percent of adults haven’t been in bookstores, but I rarely go to bookstores myself. That’s because bookstores are vanishing. Most of the books I read are purchased online, either through Amazon or Barnes & Noble. And while actually being in bookstores is wonderful and often makes me aware of books I wouldn’t otherwise know, it isn’t really necessary.
Nearly seven years ago, when I was in Denver for my friend Tom Kensler’s funeral, I had the opportunity to visit one of America’s great bookstores. I had discovered the Tattered Cover 35 years ago when I lived in Colorado and I loved it.
The physical store I visited in 1987 and 1988 no longer exists. Indeed, the store in the photo is gone too. Downsizing is a very sad thing when it comes to bookstores.
Even people who read are reading less these days.
I know I am, but one of the main reasons for that is my 73-year-old eyes, which will probably require cataract surgery later this year. That’s one reason I’m part of at least one of the statistics above — the 57 percent of books not read to completion.
There are authors I used to read in one sitting that I just don’t get through anymore. When I was 35, I bought Stephen King’s book “It” the first day it was released, took it home and stayed up till 6 a.m. devouring it. But there are four of his novels, published from 2014-2016, that I have never really read. I have read about a third of “Mr. Mercedes,” which would explain why I haven’t read the two that followed it — “Finders Keepers” and “End of Watch,” but I never really got past the first few pages of “Revival.”
Strangely though, I read “Fairy Tale” in just two days late last year.
Some stories grab me, some don’t.
Actually, quite a bit of my reading has become other people reading to me. Being able to do something else — like walking for exercise — while listening to a book on my iPhone was quite nice.
The real problem is television. In an era when people seem to have less and less free time, vegetating in front of a television set has become far more popular than reading a book or magazine. Of course that’s negative in that watching television makes brain activity more passive. Reading books does exactly the opposite.
We might expect that uneducated people wouldn’t put much value on reading, but maybe the scariest statistic of all is that 42 percent of college graduates never read another book after college.
If even the educated people aren’t reading, what hope is there?