New technology could mean book reading revival

How many people buy or read a book in a year? Surprisingly — and to many of us, sadly — 80 percent of U.S. families haven’t.

A startlingly 70 percent of adults in the U.S. haven’t been in a bookstore in the past five years.

Those numbers are courtesy of BookPublishing.com

 So some people don’t buy books or go to bookstores. Surely that’s no big deal since books offer such nice pass-along readership capability, right? About 58 percent of adults report not cracking a book open after high school. Apparently their education stopped then, too.

Sure, there are plenty of other things to read — the Internet, newspapers, magazines, school newsletters and even bumper stickers — but none of those offer the permanence of books.

 It doesn’t matter much if folks buy a book if they don’t actually read it. According to the same firm, more than 55 percent of new books that are started aren’t read to completion. Do Americans really have that short of an attention span or do we just want our information in convenient bite-sized pieces?

Perhaps we’re all environmentally conscious and don’t choose to kill another tree by purchasing a book.

The U.S. ranks second in the world — behind the United Kingdom — for the number of new titles of books per capita produced each year.

With more than half of Americans not being book-readers, it is surprising that more than 80 percent of people believe they have a book in them that ought to be told.

 Audio books are understandably popular with commuters who can multi-task and enjoy some literature while driving. But what about non-commuters? If Americans have little interest in reading books, it seems unlikely that Amazon’s newest e-book iteration, the Kindle, will have much chance of success.  

 Some people avoid purchasing books by checking them out from the local public library. The Ottawa Library boasts more than 115,000 books checked out annually by more than 9,300 library card holders.

Books clearly aren’t the traditional page turners they once were. Perhaps with new formats and methods to read, people can find their way back to the magic and pleasure of reading books.