[Infowarrior] - Are Books Becoming Obsolete?

[Richard Forno]

As a voracious reader and lifelong book lover, this is a sad, sad trend.

-rf


Are Books Becoming Obsolete?

Posted August 22, 2007 | 09:07 PM (EST)

http://tinyurl.com/ysms43

A new report doesn't bode well for books. According to an Associated
Press-Ipsos poll released recently, one in four adults read not a single
book last year, which explains the significant drop in book sales over the
last few years, but doesn't explain why superstores, like Barnes & Noble and
Borders, continue to expand.

There are many reasons why people don't read as they once did. The major
reason is that there is a feast for the eyes without the need for settling
down and focusing on the written word. Television provides a variety of
images, video games deliver bright colors and packed action, and the
Internet gives the power of immediacy. Books are something else all
together--they are a quiet entertainment and we are no longer raised to know
how to be "quiet." Richard Bustos from Dallas is a prime example:

    "I just get sleepy when I read," said Richard Bustos of Dallas, a habit
with which millions of Americans can doubtless identify. Bustos, a
34-year-old project manager for a telecommunications company, said he had
not read any books in the last year and would rather spend time in his
backyard pool.

This is discouraging news for the serious writer. Just yesterday, I lamented
the difficulties of getting a traditional publishing book deal on my post
here. Mainstream publishers are struggling since they are in the business of
selling books. They must compete with the aforementioned forms of
entertainment, and that is not an easy thing to do when money is to be made.
This is why the latest publication of Harry Potter was met with such glee,
even though with the dramatic discounts, bookstores didn't make much money
from it. Still, the thinking was that it drove traffic into the stores and
perhaps customers would pick up another book, along with that latest copy of
Harry Potter.

But consider this:

    Who are the 27 percent of people the AP-Ipsos poll found hadn't read a
single book this year? Nearly a third of men and a quarter of women fit that
category. They tend to be older, less educated, lower income, minorities,
from rural areas and less religious.

I tend to think it also goes a little deeper. We are a busy people, most
trying to stay ahead of the bills. We clock in overtime and forfeit
vacations in order to pay the mortgage, and at the end of the day, most just
want to collapse in front of the television with the remote in one hand, a
beverage in the other, and not have to think.

But a book demands more from us. When one opens a book, one brings his or
her experiences and knowledge, or hunger for knowledge, to the work and a
new world can unfold with each turning page. Unfortunately, just like most
media, there is a lot of fast food for the mind being published and people
think that reading such commercial dribble keeps them in the know. On one
level it does, but it is knowledge that serves no useful purpose. For
publishers, it's a moneymaker because we are a fast food society unwilling
to take time to digest sustenance.

Here are some more statistics:

    People from the West and Midwest are more likely to have read at least
one book in the past year. Southerners who do read, however, tend to read
more books, mostly religious books and romance novels, than people from
other regions. Whites read more than blacks and Hispanics, and those who
said they never attend religious services read nearly twice as many as those
who attend frequently.

    There was even some political variety evident, with Democrats and
liberals typically reading slightly more books than Republicans and
conservatives.

    The Bible and religious works were read by two-thirds in the survey,
more than all other categories. Popular fiction, histories, biographies and
mysteries were all cited by about half, while one in five read romance
novels. Every other genre -- including politics, poetry and classical
literature -- were named by fewer than five percent of readers.

    More women than men read every major category of books except for
history and biography. Industry experts said that confirms their observation
that men tend to prefer nonfiction.

What this fellow said mirrors how the industry has been responding:

    "Fiction just doesn't interest me," said Bob Ryan, 41, who works for a
construction company in Guntersville, Ala. "If I'm going to get a story,
I'll get a movie."

Bearing that in mind, it's possible Ryan has seen the movie version of
Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird, even if he hasn't read the book. What is
sad about this is that if Lee were to pitch her novel to agents and editors
now, it's quite likely she'd be hard pressed to find someone willing to
publish it, since it is "too quiet to be commercially viable."