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December 05, 2004

these statistics made me sad

in doing research for my book on creativity exercises for writers in progress, I discovered the following sad stats, courtesy of Para Publishing:

One-third of high school students 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.

Most readers do not get past page 18 in a book they have purchased.

70% of Americans haven't visited a bookstore in five (5) years.

Posted by crystallyn at December 5, 2004 03:46 PM

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Comments

It's sad, isn't it? I believe I singlehandedly counter about twenty non-reading families with my purchases each year. Our girls think that there's no better store than the bookstore and we almost never walk out empty-handed.

Posted by: Ancarett at December 5, 2004 04:07 PM

Scary! I myself wish I could buy stock in Brookline Booksmith. :)

Posted by: Redpanda at December 6, 2004 02:29 PM