Friday, August 31, 2007

(Belated) Booking Through Thursday - Statistics

Ok, I'm a bit late with my Booking Through Thursday entry this week. I've been in Chicago and so busy conferencing and meeting up with family and friends that it slipped my mind yesterday.

There was a widely bruited-about statistic reported last week, stating that 1 in 4 Americans did not read a single book last year. Clearly, we don’t fall into that category, but... how many of our friends do? Do you have friends/family who read as much as you do? Or are you the only person you know who has a serious reading habit?

Russell actually sent me the article in question when it first appeared. I was horrified. I read 200 books in 2006 and have read 130 books so far this year (see my BookCrossing bookshelf for a list).

Now, as to this week's question: Russell is a voracious reader (though he reads primarily nonfiction; I just queried him, he thinks he reads at least 100 a year). My parents both read a lot (as I discussed last week). My sister doesn't read much (her strain of dyslexia makes reading hard), but she does read at least one book a year. One of my nieces, who is in 2nd grade, gets in trouble for reading during lessons. The rest of my inlaws are a mixed bag: a couple don't read at all, a couple read voraciously, and everyone else falls in the middle.

Most of my friends read, a few as much as I do (but those are people I met through BookCrossing and are true book addicts). In fact, I can only think of two friends who've professed a dislike of reading - one is doing his medical residency and probably wouldn't have time to read even if he wanted to and the other definitely read a book in the last year because I found one I thought he'd like and had it sent to him (I nagged him until he read it and he did actually like it).

1 comment:

  1. Your answer is nearly identical to mine. I have two dyslexic relatives too and even they are readers, albeit slow ones. But both have read more than one book this year. I'm having a personal best with reading this year and may very well hit my goal of 365. Of course Bookcrossing and the "keep it moving" challenge makes it even more fun to read. LOL.

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