Does anyone have evidence to back this up? I didn't look too hard, but the Wikipedia citation links to a page which links to pages that don't have any actual information on them.
I looked at the cited page (http://www.humorwriters.org/startlingstats.html) which is a weird writing workshop article that gets its information from a site that "helps writers get published." I smell something fishy here.
I also searched the publishing site and found nada. Of course, I didn't do an exhaustive search, but still...
Just as an aside, I wouldn't be surprised if some college grads never read a "proper book" after college. I don't think that means the end of literacy - we do read a lot on the internet...
Yes, I tried to follow the citations too and got nowhere. I find it hard to believe that they "never" read another book after college. I suspect that wording has been twisted and we don't know the survey subjects. Did they survey a bunch of 24 year olds?
However, if you are counting only non-fiction then the Amazon data seems to confirm.
True fact: There are 4.25 million babies born each year in the U.S., and the most popular parenting books on Amazon only sell around 75 copies per day. (I haven't looked at the data in a couple years, but you can get it via ranktracer or similar.)
Informal poll: how fast do you read, in pages/min? Assume typical fiction paperback pages.
My girlfriend is an extremely fast reader, somewhere around 3 pages/min. E.g. she just read A Game of Thrones in a couple days.
I'm not a slow reader by any means, but even a two-fold speed boost would make it dramatically easier to finish books; I have too many competing interests to spend more than an hour on any given book per day, and if it's going to take me a week to finish a book, there are just too many opportunities to put it aside and start something else.
About 500 to 900 wpm depending on the urgency vs complexity vs longevity-of-understanding trade-off. So something like Game of Thrones would take me about 8 or 9 hours. The key is to move away from "voicing" the words to just "hearing" (or when scanning quickly, "understanding"). I read a lot though, so maybe it's just practice.
If I start reading something non-technical, I quickly slip back into "hearing" mode (maybe 500 wpm), but I've gotten worse at this over time as I've started spending more and more time with technical material.
When I read fiction, part of the pleasure for me is to take it easy, so I read at a leisurely pace. A a book isn't something for me to complete, it's something for me to enjoy. Rushing through a good book, to me, is like rushing through a good meal; a waste. I actually read lightly technical materials (programming language books, etc) much more quickly than fiction books.
I don't know how fast I read exactly, but I suspect it is probably between 1 to 2 pages for enjoyable fiction.
The first time I heard this stat I followed up with the Jenkins Group, the group cited here. I couldn't find anything about it on their site: http://www.bookpublishing.com/ and I tried to contact them for more information but never heard back.
Which states: "One in Four Read No Books Last Year"
Which suggests that 3/4 read at least one book _Last Year_. (that is, in 2006)
They also had the following factoid:
"Among those who said they had read books, the median figure _ with half reading more, half fewer _ was nine books for women and five for men. The figures also indicated that those with college degrees read the most, and people aged 50 and up read more than those who are younger."
Likewise; as did many of my friends and collegues. Come to think of it, in an off-hand count, I'd say 3 out of 4 of my collegues regularly mention a book they recently read in conversation.
According to the page:
33 percent of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives.
42 percent of college graduates never read another book after college.
80 percent of U.S. families did not buy or read a book last year.
70 percent of U.S. adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years.
57 percent of new books are not read to completion.[7][8]
So you're more likely to read a book if you graduate high school, but don't graduate from college than if you do graduate from college?
Also, 80% of families didn't read or buy a book in the last year? Almost all of my friends and family members are avid readers. Does this mean that my friends and family members are the only people in north America keeping the literature industry alive? Seems unlikely.
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[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 72.0 ms ] threadI also searched the publishing site and found nada. Of course, I didn't do an exhaustive search, but still...
Just as an aside, I wouldn't be surprised if some college grads never read a "proper book" after college. I don't think that means the end of literacy - we do read a lot on the internet...
However, if you are counting only non-fiction then the Amazon data seems to confirm.
True fact: There are 4.25 million babies born each year in the U.S., and the most popular parenting books on Amazon only sell around 75 copies per day. (I haven't looked at the data in a couple years, but you can get it via ranktracer or similar.)
My girlfriend is an extremely fast reader, somewhere around 3 pages/min. E.g. she just read A Game of Thrones in a couple days.
I'm not a slow reader by any means, but even a two-fold speed boost would make it dramatically easier to finish books; I have too many competing interests to spend more than an hour on any given book per day, and if it's going to take me a week to finish a book, there are just too many opportunities to put it aside and start something else.
See words -> subvocalize words -> grok.
For fast readers, it's:
See words -> grok.
The latter is learnable, and is usually a main component of speed reading programs.
I don't know how fast I read exactly, but I suspect it is probably between 1 to 2 pages for enjoyable fiction.
http://www.amazon.com/Evelyn-Seven-Day-Reading-Learning-Prog...
I bought this one recently as well due to reviews on the Evelyn Wood book, but haven't read it yet (Land of Lisp is taking all my spare time):
http://www.amazon.com/Breakthrough-Rapid-Reading-Peter-Kump/...
I think it's complete BS.
Gave me the following link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08...
Which states: "One in Four Read No Books Last Year"
Which suggests that 3/4 read at least one book _Last Year_. (that is, in 2006)
They also had the following factoid:
"Among those who said they had read books, the median figure _ with half reading more, half fewer _ was nine books for women and five for men. The figures also indicated that those with college degrees read the most, and people aged 50 and up read more than those who are younger."
I consider this stat debunked.
EDIT: spelling
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Literacy_in_the_Un...
So you're more likely to read a book if you graduate high school, but don't graduate from college than if you do graduate from college?
Also, 80% of families didn't read or buy a book in the last year? Almost all of my friends and family members are avid readers. Does this mean that my friends and family members are the only people in north America keeping the literature industry alive? Seems unlikely.
* 33 percent of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives.
* 42 percent of college graduates never read another book after college.
* 80 percent of U.S. families did not buy or read a book last year.
* 70 percent of U.S. adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years.
* 57 percent of new books are not read to completion.
True, false, or Wikipedia?