Sad facts of the day

Sad facts of the day

By Tyler Cowen on Data Source

"80% of US families did not buy or read a book last year."

"58% of the US adult population never reads another book after high school."

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Who is Reading Books (and who is not) One-third of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives. Many do not even graduate from high school. 58% of the US adult population never reads another book after high school. 42% of college graduates never read another book. 80% of US families did not buy or read a book last year. 70% of US adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years. 57% of new books are not read to completion.
--Jerrold Jenkins.
http://www.JenkinsGroup.com Most readers do not get past page 18 in a book they have purchased. 63% of adults report purchasing at least one book during the previous three-month period. (Most were probably exaggerating).
--Bookselling This Week, November 10, 1997.
http://news.bookweb.org/ 53% read fiction, 43% nonfiction. The favorite fiction category is mystery & Suspense, 19%.
--Publishers Weekly, May 12, 1997, page 13.
http://www.PublishersWeekly.com

Thirty percent of Americans surveyed by the Harris Poll say they would rather read a book than do anything else; twenty-one percent said watching TV is their favorite activity. That's the good news. The bad news is that only 13 percent selected "spending time with family.
--Publishers Weekly email Daily, July 9, 1998.
http://www.PublishersWeekly.com Each day, people in the US spend 4 hours watching TV, 3 hours listening to the radio and 14 minutes reading magazines.
--Veronis, Suhler & Associates investment bankers
http://www.veronissuhler.com 70% of Americans haven't visited a bookstore in five (5) years.
--Michael Levine, June 2002
http://www.LevinPR.com Customers 55 and older account for more than one-third of all books bought.
--2001 Consumer Research Study on Book Purchasing by the Book Industry Study Group,
http://www.bisg.org People reduced their time reading between 1996 and 2001 to 2.1 hours/month.
2001: per capita spending on books per month was $7.18.
--Publishers Weekly, May 26, 2003
http://www.PublishersWeekly.com Only 32% of the U.S. population has ever been in a bookstore.
--David Godine, Publisher. The time Americans spend reading books.
1996: 123 hours
2001: 109 hours
--Veronis, Suhler & Associates investment bankers
http://www.veronissuhler.com 1996 to 2001
Consumer spending on book rose 16%
Unit sales dropped 6%
(Readers spend more and purchased fewer books)
--Veronis, Suhler & Associates inv