Reading is up in America

January

That’s the word today from the National Endowment for the Arts, which released a study of American readers today. The tip came from one of my favorite book-ish blogs, GalleyCat which posted the news release online and teased a few of the more impressive details.

The NEA begins its discussion on an ecouraging note: “For the first time in more than 25 years, American adults are reading more literature,” the first line reads.

The report is based on results from the 2008 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA) and shows that those who are readers are also volunteers in their communities, attend arts and sports events and even exercise more than those who are non-readers.

Here are some key findings from the report:

Literary reading increases

For the first time in the history of the survey – conducted five times since 1982 – the overall rate at which adults read literature (novels and short stories, plays, or poems) rose by seven percent.

The absolute number of literary readers has grown significantly. There were 16.6 million more adult readers of literature in 2008. The growth in new readers reflects higher adult reading rates combined with overall population growth.

The 2008 increases followed significant declines in reading rates for the two most recent ten-year survey periods (1982-1992 and 1992-2002).

So from my point of view, visit community libraries and local bookstores often and partake in their literary treasures. And share with us new discoveries from each.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 12th, 2009 at 4:40 pm by Barbara Nackman.
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One Response to “Reading is up in America”

Austin personal trainer January 12th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
It might be a demographic thing. Boomers are aging and reaching retirement and have more time for reading.

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