Sad, sad, sad.

U r rite

The recent study seems to pull the data out of his ass.
Book publishing business does better and better.


"Juvenile hardbound books, which rose at a compound growth rate of 19.6 percent from 2002 to 2005." That far more than covers inflation of prices.
Go Harry Potter!

You have to consider the caliber of the books being published. Most are pure undiluted tripe. Look at the NY times bestseller list. Crap!

A book that doesn't challenge a reader in some way, hasn't promoted the growth of the reader.

It's tragic really.

I couldn't live without books to read. I can only imagine that with the decline of reading, our children's imaginations must be declining as well. I think they are getting sensory overload from tv, video games, etc., and aren't used to having to think for entertainment.

I dont remember the bestseller list not being crap.
Every now and then there is something good, but bestseller lists are not to promote good literature.

If the question was about how much poetry do people read, I would consider it interesting, but even than, in school the require poetry reading was far more extensive 30 years ago than it is now, so this poll would be obviously biased.
What I see is that elementary school kids of our time read more than elementary school kids 5-10 years ago. I obviously do not see all US, I have no idea about adults. As far as I know from the beginning, despite its steady expansion, Half Price Books never once had an unprofitable year.

Screw you all! I'm gonna go read a book.

Miss you!