Booking Through Thursday
There was a widely bruited-about statistic reported last week, stating that 1 in 4 Americans did not read a single book last year. Clearly, we don’t fall into that category, but . . . how many of our friends do? Do you have friends/family who read as much as you do? Or are you the only person you know who has a serious reading habit?
I've had a chance to think a bit about this statistic since it came out in the news report last week. One thing it doesn't mention is whether or not people were only polled about books they read for entertainment?
My husband reads a lot. But, the majority of what he reads are medical journals and surgery textbooks so that he can stay on top of things, and prepare for the board exams he takes each year of his residency. Working approximately 80 hours a week, he rarely has time to read anything else except when we are on vacation. He only reads 3-4 books each year for fun (mainly fantasy and science-fiction, some non-fiction), but he is still reading constantly (well, not when he is operating on people. He tends to focus on the operation and patient care!).
My family is a mix. My father rarely reads,;my mother is starting to read a lot more than she used to (mainly self-help books and christian non-fiction, with some of my recommendations thrown in). My friends are also a mix, but most of them read to some extent. Many of them read quite a lot, and we seem to have similar reading tastes, which makes it easy to share books! One of my friends is an editor, so she reads constantly. And, to counter the CNN article, all of my male friends are avid readers, of both fiction and non-fiction.
3 comments:
God bless your husband - with all the reading he *has* to do, I'm impressed that he takes any extra time at all to read for leisure!
P.S. I love the pic of your reading companion ...
I think the study that came out raises a lot of questions, doesn't it?
Your husband certainly does have his work cut out for him. When I was in school, I spent very little, if any, time on pleasure reading while school was in session. There just wasn't time. But I was reading. I thought all I ever did back then was read. LOL
I have been thinking about this poll, too, Nyssaneala. Many jobs require that you read for work, so although 1 in 4 Americans may not be reading novels and such, I don't doubt that they are reading plenty of work-related material, which leaves precious little time for any other kind of reading.
My husband reads a ton of business magazines every month, but it's been ages since he's read a book. Sometimes I think he reads more than I do and yet I get called "a reader" because I read books and he reads magazines. Strange,huh?
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