Annathepiper: Skewing the national reading average since 1972!

[annathepiper]

When he wasn't claiming that my first words were "play more Elvis, Daddy!" or that before I was talking I was making duck noises, Dad liked to tell the story of how, when I was four or so, I won a bet for him by reading straight out of a newspaper article.

I do not remember this. But I've certainly been reading ever since--and it's been kind of underscored for me with the article that's been on the news sites in the last day or two about how 1 in 4 Americans haven't read a book this year. Among those who had, the average number read was seven--and the vast majority of books read were romance novels or religious books, e.g., the Bible. And I was vaguely sad that only this one lonely little paragraph hinted at the presence of my Tribe (i.e., SF/F fandom) among those surveyed:

"At the same time, book enthusiasts abound. Many in the survey reported reading dozens of books and said they couldn't do without them."

I really must wonder what the results would be if a thousand SF/F fans were surveyed about their reading habits. I know I'm quite typical among fen of my generation, who, if left to their own devices, will cheerfully buy way more books than can fit upon their shelves. I have nearly 100 books of various shapes and sizes and vintages waiting for my attention on my To Read shelf, and while I don't think I'll make my nanoreamo goal of 24 books this month, I'm going to coast right to my larger goal of 100 books by year's end! I have lofty aspirations of trying to hold back on my purchasing of new books while I make serious inroads on the backlog, though I am doubtful I'll hold out on that. (Hell, there's a new Temeraire book coming out next month!)

Long story short, folks? Don't feel bad if you're one of the one in four. I'll take one for the team and read an extra book for you! ^_^

Comments

[llachglin.livejournal.com]

It's worth tracking down the original Ipsos poll and reading the detailed questions and responses. What got me about that survey is that only 3% of those surveyed claim to have read a science fiction or fantasy book in the last year. I knew the SF/F tribe was small, but that's a lot smaller than I would have guessed. It also doesn't make sense given the popularity of Harry Potter, as the final book by itself seems to have sold more copies than accounted for by 3% of Americans.

I'm a relatively slow book reader myself, taking about a minute per page on average. (My online reading is much faster because I'm scanning for information rather than reading for enjoyment.) I also don't usually have big chunks of book-reading time, so I rarely have as much as an hour a day to read for enjoyment, and often more like 15-20 minutes. So a 600 page book is ten solid hours of reading, and will take me at least a couple of weeks to get through. So I don't blow through huge piles of books like many of my friends--24 books would be a good *year* of books for me. Still, I almost always have at least one book that I'm reading and sometimes two or three. I like to read a lot of pretty dense non-fiction, too, which slows me down even more.

But not even fitting in any reading at all, and not having any books or bookshelves? That boggles the mind, and 27% of Americans apparently fit that description.

[annathepiper]

I'm not sure most people (read: those outside SF/F fandom) think of Harry Potter as SF/F. Rather, I expect they think of it as a children's series.

I'm fortunate in that I do read very quickly and I also have a good amount of time for reading in my daily commutes--but your 24 books in a year is certainly still well above the average quoted in that poll!

And yeah, I boggle. I have a hard time even beginning to fathom not reading anything at all for enjoyment! I mean, I can come up with scenarios if I think about it, but I'm still having Eddie Izzard chirping "NO INFORMATION IN THIS AREA" in my head when I do. ;)