Musing Mondays - reading survey


THIS week’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about a “reading” survey, and what it had to say…


MizB recently read an article (here), that I found through BiblioAddict’s blog, that talked of “why women read more than men“. In it, author Ian McEwan is quoted saying:

“When women stop reading, the novel will be dead.”

Do you believe this to be true? Why, or why not?


I don't think the novel will be dead if women stopped reading, but I seriously doubt women or anyone else will ever stop reading. I know quite a few men and children who read everyday: family, friends, and relatives, plus all the bloggers out there. I've been reading since learned how in the 1st grade. I even won the prize (the coveted Gold Star) for the most books read in my class - once I started, you couldn't stop me from devouring books. It was love at first sight.

The owner of my favorite used bookstore was discouraged the other day about people not reading anymore and started quoting the statistics from a study that said only about 50% of the population reads now and less than 25% of teenagers read anymore. He was lamenting that when his kids grow up they won't want to own or operate the bookstore. Of course, his wife had just had a baby and I think it was the lack of sleeping making him down. I let him vent because I didn't agree with the study. They probably had only talked to about 100 people anyway. I really irks me how its reported that such and such percentage of the population think a certain way when the survey uses less than 1% of the population. But that is a post for another day.

I don't think people will ever stop reading, which should be encouraging to all those future authors out there.
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6 comments:

  1. gautami tripathyOctober 20, 2008 at 9:35 AM

    Nothing can kill reading. It will go on forever!

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  2. BuffieOctober 20, 2008 at 9:59 AM

    I know I'm doing my part to get the next generation reading. My daughter already has three shelves of books and she's not even 1 yet. We love reading to her

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  3. Lisa (Southern Girl Reads)October 20, 2008 at 10:23 AM

    I agree with you - I think reading is kind of 'in' these days. Like you, once I started reading as a child, I couldn't stop. I loved the places the stories took me. My friend's 8 yr old son has suddenly become interested in reading and she is so happy about it. He now takes a book every place he goes!Isn't that wonderful??!!

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  4. Brooke from The Bluestocking GuideOctober 20, 2008 at 10:38 AM

    I know where they got that 9 book stat.

    Musing Monday

    Oh I'm raffling off a copy of Brisingr this week. So visit the book review section.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Beth FOctober 20, 2008 at 11:14 AM

    I agree, reading and books will not die. We may find that people turn to digital sources, but I think we'll always have some form of books.

    ReplyDelete
  6. KathleenOctober 20, 2008 at 4:19 PM

    I think it's frustrating when they do studies of small numbers of people too.

    I don't remember if I ever receieved an award but I was always the top reader in my classes too.

    ReplyDelete

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