When I was a kid in Vacaville, California, we had a great library and we went there fairly often. I remember seeing bookmobile and RIF commercials on TV. I thought the idea of someone driving a bunch of books around like some kind of literary ice cream man was pretty cool. I asked my mom why we didn’t have one of those and she told me they were for poor kids in places like Oakland. Even at a tender age, I knew Oakland was a place we stayed away from, so that was that for books on wheels.
Other than reading for work – endless amounts of technical documentation, whitepapers, presentations and studies of trends, etc. – I probably read at least a book per month. Sometimes more. Usually history, economics, politics, science. Definitely skewed toward the social sciences. I am not above reading fiction, but since Tom Clancy ran his course I just haven’t really gotten into any. Once in awhile, I’ll dig up a classic - 1984, The Grapes of Wrath, The Good Earth, All Quiet on the Western Front – usually books I lifted from high school that I may or may not have read when they were assigned but that I kept for later.
Recently, I was reading Julia Keller’s commentary in the Chicago Tribune on Obama as a “literary president”. Other than just another note in the symphony of Obama adoration in the press and making me a little mad by taking the now obligatory pot-shot at Bush, it got me thinking about reading. (More on the pot-shot in a future post.)
The official literacy rate (as reported by the CIA World Fact Book) in the United States is 99%. But the definition used for “literacy” in that reporting (for all countries) is a very basic standard indeed – being able to read and write even a few hundred words in your native language at the age of 15.
There is an oft-quoted stat from ~2007 that 80% of Americans have not bought or read a book in the past year. This was a private study by The Jenkins Group, but I couldn’t lay my hands on the original study, so I’m going on the reporting of it in other sources – including a summary of various reading/publishing statistics compiled by Robyn Jackson.
Compounding the confusion is the conflict between various surveys. For example, a Census Bureau report in 2002 cited 43.2% of people reading books in the past year – which would put us quite a distance from that 80% number.
A 1993 study found that up to 23% of American adults had only the most basic level of literacy, with difficulty locating information in printed material such as books, newspapers and maps.
My first instinct when I think of these stats is, “How can this possibly be true?” I mean after all, everyone I know reads quite a bit. But then, I don’t know thousands of people and, like most people, the people I hang out with are pretty much like me – white, middle class or better, decently educated, reasonably smart. What’s more, I think there is a tradition (in fact, a doctrine) of Mormonism that encourages reading of not just church-related materials but wide ranging topics.
I’m not expecting people to spend their evenings reading the classics by they fire, but how do people get through life without reading? It would certainly explain how we as a country have gotten to a point where we know collectively nothing about history and can’t manage our own financial affairs. And what’s worse, people seem to have precious little curiosity about things.
If someone tells me it is warmer/colder now then it has been in 1000 years, and I don’t know what the Maunder Minimum or Medieval Warm Period are, then I’m likely to just accept that.
If someone tells me this is the worst economy in 50 years, and I don’t remember the Carter years or understand what made the Great Depression “great” then why should I doubt?
If I don’t know that Sting lifted the “plot” for Roxanne from Cyrano de Bergerac or numerous lyric lines from Shakespeare’s sonnets, then the guy seems like even more of a genius songwriter.
Holy crap people. Turn off America’s Next Top Model and The Bachelor and just read something. Anything. You can Tivo your favorite reality shows and watch them later.
In the end, I sincerely hope that 80% is not accurate. What’s the point of being literate if you choose not to read?
What’s the last book you read? How much reading do you do?
Jeremy Clarkson
