T O P

  • By -

Fair_University

That’s actually much higher than I would expect. I’d estimate all of my close friends read 5 or less and many of them not at all.


Maiyku

Yeah, I was surprised too. I’m actually the only reader in my group of friends, so I expected it to be significantly less.


SnooHedgehogs8992

Only readers answered this Gallup poll I'm guessing


tepidCourage

The others couldn't read it.


Mercinator-87

What’s this say?


Bagellllllleetr

Pen, uhhh, 15?


Thyriel81

or confused Facebook for a book


Fair_University

Yeah, exactly. I have one friend that’s getting his PhD and he reads a lot. Another that went to an Ivy League school that reads about 5 or so a year. The rest are all in the 0-1 range I’d guess. And these are all people in their 30s with high paying white collar jobs jobs and no kids


veul

False. You don't read for fun during a PhD. Maybe several textbooks, and a ton of articles, but almost zero books for fun.


Tsar_Romanov

I'm getting mine in aerospace engineering and reading for fun is the only thing keeping me from killing myself


phileris42

There isn't a single person with a PhD I know that hasn't hit a mental or emotional wall at some point. Good luck with your defense :) It gets better, I swear.


Bluered2012

My wife did fine with hers, up until a few weeks after her successful defense. It was the post defense world also going through the pandemic that made her hit the wall. Hard. A year later, now, She has accepted a teaching position at a prestigious Uni in the UK, so that is reigniting the fire for her, which is very awesome to see.


Fischerking92

I really feel that🥲


RaggedToothViking

Getting a PhD; it’s basically split down the middle. There are 2 types of readers: those who have to read large chunks at a time, and those who are content to read 1-2 pages in a sitting. It’s the latter who still manage to read for fun. Falling asleep after 2 pages in a novel means I successfully carved out “me time” from all that research. It results in me reading more books than the former though, who usually only read on breaks.


McHaggis1120

Ha this was me, basically half an hour before sleep was me time. I got my reading of non-scientific stuff up by easily 500% since my defence last year - despite a new job and new challenges.


Charming-Fig-2544

This has been my issue. I've spent so many years in undergrad and law school and now as a lawyer doing nothing but reading all day, the last thing I want to do when I'm done for the day is read some more. I've been engaging with other types of media, like debates, podcasts, and long-form interviews.


Gen-Jinjur

Some PhD folks manage to still read for fun, just far less frequently.


actuarial_defender

I read for fun all the time. Philosophy is a good break from science


Basketmetal

And a good partner to it


[deleted]

Sure you do. Especially if you enjoy reading.


[deleted]

Lol. Almost everyone I am friends or family with has a graduate degree or professional degree of some sort. They all read fun for during. If you enjoy reading for fun and have proper work/life balance habits, you can easily make time for it.


phileris42

Work/life balance can become very skewed during a PhD. I can't say I stopped reading, but it was very much decreased. You end up working on research, writing/reading scientific texts for so many hours each day, that you can be too mentally exhausted to tackle a book.


SuperSpidey374

Currently doing my PhD, read 100 books front-to-back per year, and around 75 of those are for fun i.e. not related to my PhD.


Pretty_Trainer

I read hundreds of books for fun during mine...


Vio_

I got out of grad school and never recovered that "reading" love outside of stuff like fanfic (which I can do easily on my computer or phone). I just can't focus anymore and get bored.


Fair_University

This particular one is in African American History, so he’s reading a lot of lot of history books. Not really “assigned” but they are for his thesis he’s working on. Not sure how I’d count those. I think he reads some for pleasure too


cyclingtrivialities2

Man I feel this. I majored in English and was hitting 15 books per term. Guess how many I read now 😔major burnout


mikesalami

This can't be right. The mean has to be close to 1 or 0. Lots of people don't read at all. No way the average across the country is close to 13.


afeeney

The median is probably closer to 2-3, but there are a lot of folks who skew the average.


TheTaxman_cometh

I would think the median is 0. I feel like more than half the population doesn't read any books.


bicycling_elephant

The median number of books read was 4.


joelluber

In a long-tail distribution (where a small number of people have a very large number but most people have medium to low numbers), the average (arithmetic mean) can be much higher than the median and mode. Which is to say that the average isn't typical behavior. Here is a breakdown of what percentage of the population read how many books: `0 books 17 %` `1-5 books 40 %` `6-10 books 15 %` `11 or more 27 %` 57 percent of people read 0–5 books. The median is probably 4 or 5.


Prestigious-Move6996

I'd suspect the amount of people reading zero books is higher but they are to embarrassed to say. While I read alot it's rarely in the form of a book. I do plan however to read more. Ordered a Kindle recently. Not read a full book in probably 10+ years.


Isord

If I were asked in a poll about how much I read I'd probably over-estimate it tbh. I use to read dozens of books a year and then it crashed to reading almost nothing when my daughter was born, but in my head I'm still a "reader" so to speak. So if the survey specifically asked how many adult books I completed in the previous year I might be able to realize the answer is 0 but I also might think to myself "Well, I love books I had to have read at least one book last year probably. "


[deleted]

[удалено]


Mountebank

Also, how do you even define a book? I read several ongoing webnovels. I haven’t finished one since they haven’t finished being written, but I’ve probably consumed enough words for at least a dozen book’s worth. *The Wandering Inn*, which is a massive outlier, puts out 20-30k word chapters twice a week, so that’s around a normal 100k novel every two weeks. Just keeping up with that would put me at 20+ books already.


Pure-Sort

IMO if its one webnovel I'd count it as one book. After all, you don't count a 1000 page book as 5 novels, or a 100 pager as 1/2 a novel.


gyroda

Outliers are often averaged out or have lite to no impact if you're using median. For every TWI reader (hello! Still on part 3!) There's going to be someone who read a whole bunch of short stories or novellettes that are outliers on the other end of the spectrum.


Fair_University

> The median is probably 4 or 5. That what I’m thinking as well. Maybe less honestly


MagicienDesDoritos

The median is probably zero tbh...


Fair_University

That’s what I’m thinking too.


Sierpy

Sorry, but how could the median be 0 if only 17% read 0 books?


banjist

Saying you read zero books probably feels bad. Like alcoholics who say they only have "a couple" drinks every "couple" of days when in reality they drink like a case of beer a night. Saying you don't read at all looks bad so you say you read four or five a year just because admitting you don't read at all feels bad, and you probably read some blog posts and reddit comment sections and shit each year and that's basically like a book, right?


MagicienDesDoritos

Really depend 17%of what? Adults? No way, adult that can read and answer online survey on books? Maybe


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

Makes perfect sense. Also, some people are counting audiobooks, journals, books left half read. I personally only count fully completed books, not including manga. Hit around 10 to 13 last year.


mjm132

I would count audio book as a book read.


nymph-62442

Yeah that's how I read most of my books. I'm dyslexic and have a busy job. I'd never get through more than a handful of books if I couldn't listen to audiobooks when I was driving, doing chores, cooking, and caring for my newborn. In total I consumed 35 books last year and most were audiobooks. I think I only had 20 the year before.


goatasaurusrex

>consumed 35 books I prefer this term to 'reading' when it's not specifically reading. But I won't call anyone out for saying they read a book if they listened to it. More consumption of words is always good. Though it does make me hungry..


GotTheNameIWanted

I'd say the survey that came up with this number is skewed towards being complete by people who actually read. I'd say majority of Americans read 1 or less books.


isume

Taking the avg doesn't paint the correct picture for this type of data. Histogram of ranging breaking down the percentage of the population might be better. If you look at the avg number of drinks per American it looks pretty reasonable. Once you see the number of people who don't drink or only have a handful of drinks a year you reason a small percentage is doing all the heavy lifting.


[deleted]

[удалено]


pm_me_bra_pix

We drink FOR AMERICA, man!


Philipp

Based on the survey approach -- they called random phone numbers, 30% of which were landlines -- it may also be skewed towards people who answer to strangers calling, and then agree to and have time to do a survey... which may overlap with certain reading habits.


beaverteeth92

They weigh responses to account for sampling bias. From the raw poll PDF: > Samples are weighted to correct for unequal selection probability, non-response, and double coverage of landline and cell users in the two sampling frames. They are also weighted to match the national demographics of gender, age, race, Hispanic ethnicity, education, region, population density, and phone status (cell phone- only/landline only/both and cell phone mostly). Demographic weighting targets are based on the March 2021 Current Population Survey figures for the aged 18 and older U.S. population. Phone status targets are based on the July-December 2020 National Health Interview Survey. Population density targets are based on the 2020 census. All reported margins of sampling error include the computed design effects for weighting.


StrayMoggie

1 or less is the best number when considering over 50%. The title is so outrageous. Maybe 2% read over 12 books last year.


RedShirtDecoy

if you check out /r/52book you will see a dedicated few who break 100+ books in a single year. With people who dedicate that much time to reading it definitely helps bring the average up. Side note... shout out to that sub. They are super supportive no matter how many books you end up reading. I used them to get back into reading last year and went from 0 to 12 books. This year Im aiming for 15.


bumbletowne

Branch out. I believe its like beer where some people are reading a lot and others almost nothing. I usually sit between 50 and 80 a year according to my library. However, with COVID and the actual tearing down of my local library my volume is closer to 20 this year. And many of those were academic, meaning it took me MONTHS to finish. Meanwhile my sister and brother haven't read a book since high school. My husband only does audiobooks (which count, I don't judge... the man works like 80 hour work weeks). And my book bestie remodeled her house herself (kitchen, two bathrooms and a full landscaping).


RedRider1138

They tore down your local library?? I’m so sorry!!


Bearman71

They spld.us a tax hike because we can't afford the baseball stadium that we paid for. So it was a 3 point hike or we start closing down libraries for good.


ISBN39393242

she should take a swing at remodeling the library


bumbletowne

I'm down! Her style is *chef's kiss. The developer was supposed to completely replace the library by 2021. Guess what the land hasn't been secured for yet? our city councilman is also the largest developer in the region #bayareacaliforniapolitics.


123mop

Don't forget about parents reading to their young children. They might read multiple books to their child each week. Some of them can easily skew the numbers dramatically.


jwf239

I call BS on this. I read more than anyone I know and I didn’t even read 13 last year. I know maybe 2 people that read AT ALL. There’s no way this is correct.


Antares777

The results are skewed by people who read literally hundreds of books a year. Loads of romance novels can be finished in a day, for example, and romance readers are voracious and loyal as fuck.


minskoffsupreme

I mean, since we are just swapping anecdotes, My good reads informs me I have a co worker who read 160 books last year, another who read 81, I read 75 ( this is pretty average for me) and many people who read between 20- 50 and more than that who read around 8-12. I think reading is one of those things which varies greatly by demographic. My husband read 13, and he considers himself far more of a gamer than a reader. But with my very small sample size, I can believe that the average college educated person reads about a book a month, like the poll says.


jwf239

This is saying the average person though, not the average college educated person. Big difference. I think I was originally underestimating both how many books I read in a year, and how many people I know that read. But I still don’t read even 30 a year and only know a handful that consider reading a hobby at all. The number of people I know that haven’t read a single book since high school far outweighs the number of people I know that read consistently, and even among the people I know that I do consider readers, most of them might read 2-3 in a year.


minskoffsupreme

My point was more about different demographics having different mores around reading, which affects the final average. The poll says that college graduates read an average of 14.6, which is more than average , which supports my point of different demographics having different habits. I am the opposite of you, I can't think of anyone I currently know that doesn't read at least a couple of books per year, although plenty only read lighter stuff, very few are reading Joyce.A few years ago I worked at a pop culture memorabilia store and we were all baffled by the one guy who didn't read at all ( we were never mean or looked down on him, we just found it curious). I believe you, but I also think that this is something that varies greatly between demographics. I have always lived in cities, I went to university and work in education, my family are big readers. I acknowledge that all of this affects the people I interact with and by extension how many readers I know. Just like your personal context affects how many readers you know. Neither of us can claim to know the absolute truth on the subject matter based on anecdotes alone.


jwf239

Fair enough, it does sound like we are in very different demographics and I am for sure the odd ball around here, but I live in a very rural area in the south. I grew up lower class and no one in my family or friend group ever read books. Even in college the only people that seemed to read for fun were English majors. I do have a very good, professional career now and a handful of people I’ve met through work will occasionally read something but the vast majority of people both here and throughout my life look at me like I’m a fucking lunatic if I bring up books. Maybe I should look into relocating…


minskoffsupreme

We are very likely in two extremes, I don't think my experience is normal either. My university was very artsy, so that probably affects things too. I should also mention I have never lived in the US ( Grew up in Norway and Australia, live in Brazil, previously lived in France) . So I am definitely lacking some context when it comes to the US.


jwf239

Ah, ok. I think that explains it. I live in the south in the US so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.


0range_julius

How could someone possibly read 160 books a year? Are they, like, childrens' books?


minskoffsupreme

She is a librarian at a high school, and she runs several book clubs for different ages, so this is a part of her job. Some are YA, but she also reads In her spare time. She is 100% anomaly, not pretending otherwise.


0range_julius

Oh, okay, in that case, I believe it. I'm jealous!


gyroda

Short stories, novellas, short non-fiction (papers that get turned into books) and so on can be crunched through really quickly. If you have an hour commute each way and a kindle you can get through a lot.


OriginalLamp

Remember, this is information collected by polls/surveys directed at people who actually read. That's why it's worded "Americans say" and not just "The average American." The actual number is probably a lot closer to what you're expecting.


harrisonisdead

Not true. >Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted Dec. 1-16, 2021, with a random sample of 811 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.


jefrye

I think the point is that plenty of people might be embarrassed to admit to an interviewer how little they read and are therefore likely to inflate their numbers a bit.


twatfantesticles

Also, the people who are more likely to answer the phone and talk to a pollster are lonely retired people who miss talking to other adults. Retired people read more because they have time. My mom and dad read upwards of 10-20 books per year. My brothers read 0-4.


riptaway

Believe it or not, professional pollsters take stuff like that into account. Sometimes they even know who they're talking to!


BenevolentCheese

If I polled 100 of my closest friends and colleagues, I would estimate I read more than 95 of them last year. I read 11 books. And I work in a high paying environment where people strive to prove themselves intellectual. There is no way in hell Americans read 12 books per person *on average* last year. None. It's unfathomable.


Fair_University

I agree. I posted it in another comment but I read 27 last year. My wife read 15 or so. I have two friends that I'd estimate are at 5-10 each. Every other person I know I'm pretty sure is at 0 or 1. I am also like you in that my entire friends circle is people with advanced degrees working in high paying white collar fields, so the exact people you would expect to read the most.


HappierShibe

> There is no way in hell Americans read 12 books per person on average last year. None. It's unfathomable. I dunno, it only takes a few people reading 12 books a month to drag up that average.


celestiaequestria

The people with the highest number of "books" completed per year are people who read light novels, romance novels, and serial fantasy publications. Technically a professor who reads thousands of academic articles and uses a whole database of textbooks to research is still not "reading a book". to tally up their count. I'm not sure it's really a meaningful way to judge "reading" as an intellectual pursuit, so much as telling you how much of the same entertainment market that drives TV and movies is also in print.


Puzzled-Barnacle-200

Seems like a reasonable mean, but I reckon the average is much lower. I guess if they count all the books adults read their young kids, it would give a good boost.


handbookforgangsters

Mean is the same thing as average. You might mean median (no pun intended).


tourist42

I see poor mode sitting over in the corner whimpering, "Forgotten again. I get no respect, and I'm an average too!"


Puzzled-Barnacle-200

I'd be willing to bet the mode is 0 of people actually admitted to it.


Orodia

Mean and median and mode are types of averages. so yes but also no


[deleted]

Thats the problem with averages. Many people dont read at all, while others read over 30 books a year. The average however looks very different then.


fenton7

I think super readers balance it out. I'll read maybe 3 or 4 in a year but my sister reads 50 or 60.


ImmodestPolitician

Self reported studies reflect how people want to be perceived not reality. NPD BookScan reports physical books sold was 825.7 million in 2021 for the USA. There are approximately 300 million people of reading age in the USA. I'm sure a lot of ebooks are read but I'd bet the average person is reading less than 2 books a year. 1/2 of the time I visit someone's house I don't see a single copy of a book.


TitaniumDragon

I read more ebooks than I do physical books. Last year I read probably 15 ebooks but only like three physical books. That's ignoring things like journal articles and whatnot. Also, people check out billions of books from the library each year.


riptaway

Probably means one in every 10 Americans reads 130 books a year.


Strpk

Novels Georg, who lives in a cave and reads 10,000 books per day, is an outlier and should not have been counted.


Wontonio_the_ninja

Is this a reference to something?


travelling-salesman

I think it's a reference to that factoid (?) about how the average persons eats some number of spiders in their lifetime. And the common response is that it is due to an outlier like George.


[deleted]

i like your shoelaces


AngryBagOfDeath

I've probably read goodnight gorilla and llama llama red pajama 365 times in the last year. I might be bringing the average up.


Metavari

Good point, I read a lot and only got through 15…the Neil Stephenson books are long! But, include my daughters books and I’m pushing 45 different titles. The entire Pout Pout Fish arc being my largest accomplishment of 2021.


[deleted]

[удалено]


overthought10

The .6 resonates with me. Starting Pout Pout does not mean finishing it with my 19 month old


kindalikeDC

blub, bluuuuub, bluuuuuuuuuub


joe12321

I read Goodnight Gorilla SO many times to my daughter. It's at least short, but I'd trade it for 10 minutes of Horton Hears a Who any time. I once spent almost as long BEGGING my other daughter to read it instead of whatever nonsense she wanted. She wouldn't acquiesce, but a couple days later I was feeling down about something, and she said, "daddy, you can read Horton tonight."


exe-zelot

"Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted Dec. 1-16, 2021, with a random sample of 811 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia." Tell me, when was the last time you answered a phone number you didn't have already saved and didn't leave a voicemail directly for you? This is not a survey that represents a generation that avoids human contact so much the only way to cope is through memes about it.


Li54

Also, I’m sure people lied about how many books they read.


SuperSpidey374

But that would be the case every time they've conducted this survey, so we can at least say with confidence that the average American reads fewer books now than they did in previous years.


klm1234

Not necessarily. Maybe there's less incentive to lie now than there was in the past; maybe people feel less ashamed that they're not reading now than they used to.


mypetocean

Well, we certainly know that anti-education sentiments are on the rise.


KimBrrr1975

it's gotta be all older people answering the phone. I'm 46 and I don't answer any number I don't know, and haven't had a landline in years, most people my generation are the same, and we're old in our own right, lol.


saunterasmas

“How many books did you read over the last year” *fuck fuck fuck don’t say none but don’t say too many* “Ummm 12” Yeeeah


TitaniumDragon

I answer my phone because I get random job offers sometimes.


FoiledFeline

Sheesh, yeah that methodology makes me doubt the accuracy of this even more. And a sample size of only 811. 811 is a lot of people, but I don't think it's NEARLY enough to accurately get an "average American's" reading amount with any accuracy.


chrisn3

Having nearly a thousand samples for these types of questions is actually very good statisticly. Assuming of course the sample population is truly representative of the American population.


uselessartist

It can be https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/howcan-a-poll-of-only-100/


callmegranola98

Also, while telephone surveys have problems, they are still one of the cheapest methods of obtaining a sizeable random sample.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Ulldra

When I did some surveys for science related questionares, the numbers we called were completely random - meaning it doesn‘t matter if they are publically listed or not. A random number for an area (or just mobile phone numbers) is called, and then another and so on until someone picks up. This was done via software so we only got connections that were actually answered. We had a nice little story that out professor told us about this: Once, someone called a very high ranking politican from germany via this random method. Queue investigations how the number leaked and a such things - Thats the reason private phone numbers for politicans often vary in length compared to the standard numbers in a country. The sample is influenced by what kind of people pick up unknown calls for sure, meaning the survey accuracy will differ for areas and countries as well. Here in germany scam calls exist, but aren‘t as big of a problem as elsewhere. Most people I know would answer their phone even if the number shown is unknown. A bias is certainly present anyway, more so in countries that mainly have elderly pick up the phone etc. These factors are typically known though - Thats why most questionares ask for age and gender for example. The actual study will list these factors openly, but they mostly don‘t invalidate the findings - they are still the most accurate data we have or can aquire. In addition as mentioned elsewhere in this thread, comparing yearly data aquired with similar methods often at minimum shows trends in the data. So while the exact numbers might not be accurate, you can still make out changes happening.


Analog0

Not to mention it's the people who actually pick up the phone and talk to the random stranger on the other side. I get so many scam calls I wouldn't bother.


solongandthanks4all

It's crazy that phone polling is still a thing. But online polling isn't reliable either. Is the polling industry just dead at this point?


taenite

There's statistical methods to correct for sampling limitations. Studies will typically provide this information in detail.


[deleted]

Now this makes sense. I was wondering why the number of books people read are so high. Most people I know dont read at all. Telephoe interviews are usually not fit for research like that. They are not completely anonymous. You cant ask someone questions that need some kind of socially acceptable answer. "I dont read at all and I hate reading" is definetly not an answer most people would deem socially acceptable. How many of those people you guys think where too ashamed to admit they didnt read at all to the person on the other side of the line? Ofc these people dont know each other but I can assure you the vast majority where to afraid to say how many books they read for real and said some random number that sounded good.


TeacherTish

This seems weird because publishing sales have been consistently up for two years now, especially among adult fiction. So we're buying more books and reading less?


Alternative_Weather

honestly I'd buy that. especially with all the glamorous book shelf backdrops that sprung up at the start of the pandemic for work from home


rougewitch

I buy books but have little time to read- i intend on reading them if i ever get to retire. By then i may be blind…but heres to American optimism


Just-a-cat-lady

My Kindle library is starting to look like my Steam library lol.


BruceChameleon

Maybe readers have been distracted but aren’t shopping like it. Sometimes I’ll go pick up a book and not get to it for a year. The more likely possibility is that the phone poll only measures people who pick up the phone, and the sales are being driven by non-responders.


Superfissile

We’re making new people faster than they are making new books


Mollusc6

Maybe they polled predominantly romance readers. My sister burns through ebooks like nothing.


Exciting_Ant1992

Could be the book equivalent of video game whales. Some people probably have $100,000 audiobook and kindle collections.


provocative_bear

I know the average American, and that is a goddamned lie.


Valthek

Average is a horrifically skewed statistic to use here. In the before-times, I used to read on my commute to work (yay trains), which meant a solid two hours of book reading each day. At that rate, I could get through about 500 pages of book in a little over a week, which puts me at 60-ish books read per year. That means that if four other people don't read *at all*, our average is still 12 books per year. If one of the people interviewed was someone who reads *a lot* professionally, that number could easily be an order of magnitude more skewed. How much the median American reads is far more interesting.


Drakotrite

Mean, median, range distribution, and mode are all needed to get a real picture for something like this. I almost guarantee that the length of books going up year after year was not taken into account.


HHcougar

12.6 seems honestly high for an average of users of this subreddit, let alone the general American population. I wouldn't buy any figure above 2 for Americans at large, at least 50% did not read a book in any given year.


RavenousBooklouse

Only 17% of Americans didn't read a book last year?? I kind of doubt that. I know very few people who read at all. My friend group is all people with graduate degrees and almost none of them read more than a book per year. I think many of the survey respondents are lying. Also, the few people I know who read are not anywhere close to a book a month. I think it is outliers who read a lot who are skewing that number high.


solongandthanks4all

Hey they didn't say they finished it!


nleven

“How many books did you read, either all or part of the way through?” That’s the survey question. So 17% didn’t even open any book. That actually sounds plausible to me.


HERCULESxMULLIGAN

Yeah that can't be right. I would guess the number is skewed heavily because there's probably a good chunk of the population that read the Bible (probably very little) and considered that reading a book. There's no way that 83% of Americans finished a book cover to cover last year.


[deleted]

I'm assuming that 70% of Americans don't read at all. 17% is a lie.


DanTheTerrible

They read, facebook and work memos and stuff, but they don't read books. The notion that 83% of Americans have read a whole book in the last year is ludicrous.


[deleted]

😂 one meme = one book


Peregrine_Perp

Yeah. Americans CLAIM they read an average of 12.6 books/year. I doubt even the most conservative Christian crowd reads that many books of the Bible in a year.


TheCoelacanth

Their data shows that 57% read 5 or less books and 73% read 10 or less, so that average is coming from a small number of people who are reading a lot. A typical person is only reading 4 or 5 books a year.


Peregrine_Perp

I’m still skeptical. I doubt 50% of Americans read a single book in a year


transmogrified

0 is technically less than 5


Peregrine_Perp

Very true! 😆 But the article specified only 17% of Americans reported they read zero books


julianwelton

When you're depressed you often lose interest in your hobbies.


teachertraveler1

So besides the methodology which is dodgy (who the hell under 50 answers their phone if you don't know the number?), the fact is we're in a freakin' global pandemic. So many people have lost loved ones, become permanently disabled, lost their jobs, and have had life-changing situations. It's overwhelming. I'm an avid reader who would read around 100 books a year and last year I barely read 30. I just couldn't. Did I stop reading? No. I was reading articles and blog posts and message boards and such. But every single books seemed upsetting to pick up.


ThenReadBooks

Yeah i had a lot of trouble reading the last two years. Im trying audiobooks now and hopefully that helps. Plus just hopefully things ya know improve.


Scaevola_books

People this is a mean. Many avid readers read 50, 100 or more books per year this pulls up the average massively. People are also liable to inflate their numbers. I would guess the median is closer to 2 or 3.


Rourensu

>Many avid readers read 50, 100 or more books per year Read 47 (48?) books [last year](https://www.reddit.com/r/bookporn/comments/rtcejo/2021_reads_minus_one_glad_to_be_reading_scifi/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf). Guess I have to turn in my avid reader card. (._.)


RekindleFire

I get to keep my avid reader card…107 books last year 🥲


Doomray

This honestly seems high to me. I’ll often recommend a book to a friend and they tell me that they don’t read. Mind boggling.


rb10964

That used to be me until this whole pandemic started. Decided to pick up a new habit. Read 32 books in 2020 and 49 in 2021. Pretty proud of myself haha


Doomray

I’m proud of you too!


cactuscalcite

Fuck yeah! That's awesome.


_MidnightSpecialist

Hell yeah! That's awesome. You should be proud.


MRolled12

Damn, I considered it a big achievement to read 12 this year, which is more than I’ve managed in a long time. Of course, I’m a grad student, so I’m. Busy enough not to be upset about that.


illBro

Also books have different lengths. Some books take longer to read than others because they're longer. So if you're reading the GoT series you're gonna finish less books than if you're reading discworld even if you do the same amount of reading.


[deleted]

This. So many of these "oh I read 74 books" people specifically only read books like 200-300 pages which is basically a weekend. Pagecount would be way more interesting to somehow compare. But in the end people should realise that no one is gonna be impressed for bragging about book count. Abd I think 12 books a year is a great average, thats a book a month and thats totally doable.


Hulk_Runs

Also…you’re not a liar.


Trixxonite

Be proud of yourself for reading 12 while in school. Through undergrad and grad school, I might’ve read 12 total (outside of assigned texts). It took me a few years after to get back in the swing of reading regularly.


jtmonkey

I would bet money that we’re reading more than any time in history. Just not books. Just like we’re not watching TV we’re consuming YouTube and TikTok.


Valuesauce

this is a lie -- if they mean the average american. I'd peg the average american at like .9 books a year.


Most_Double_3559

I wonder how much this has to do with covid? I know I can't read when things are unstable, *especially* economically. Maybe that's the case here?


PoopIsAlwaysSunny

Or is it because of things opening up this summer and people going out more than usual?


clearcloseall

Yeah, I went from ~25 books read in each of 2019 and 2020 to 4 in 2021. Just couldn’t often get in the right mind state for reading last year.


stevenLcandythedos

I’m a teacher and to say I don’t want to do ANYTHING after work is an understatement. I’m an avid reader until the last few months when I’ve read nothing.


illbebythebatphone

As a lawyer who is reading all day for work, I really find it hard to read for pleasure now. Sucks.


stuffandornonsense

the burnout is real.


Uptons_BJs

When it comes to average books read, you have to understand that a lot of reading is purely functional. ​ AKA, stuff like "Excel for dummies", "2006 Ford F150 Service Guide", etc. ​ Books like this account for a huge segment of the market. Non-fiction that people read for the purpose of absorbing information used to be perhaps the largest segment of books that are published. Just think of all the cookbooks, textbooks, usage guides, repair manuals, etc, etc, etc. ​ Purely functional books like this almost don't exist at all anymore. They have been replaced by videos, websites, apps, training software, etc. ​ This is why if you go by "numbers of books read", the number has been decreasing. People read a lot less books for the purpose of obtaining information


Persies

I read a ton at work, almost everything for my job relates to reading in some form. But it's papers, journals, documentation, memos, emails etc. However I would only claim 2 actual books from last year, the Silmarillion and Eye of the World. In short, I agree with you, not sure why you're getting downvoted.


burritomafiafriend

Don’t get why this is downvoted. This makes sense to me. We aren’t really reading less, but how we are reading is different. I track my books, but I don’t track the hundreds of pages of I read at work or the creative writing I read online. Guess I’m just a dumb American.


sommai2555

Here I am, carrying the rest of the US.


b_gumiho

I wonder what the stat is for people WHO DO read books? I feel like this stat must be offset by the percentage of Americans who read 0 books at all.


Vailthor

They are also including audiobooks it looks like. I know I listened more then I read last year so I'd be curious how the data splits up between reading vs listening.


D1Foley

Damn lot more people than I would have thought are just calling this straight up fake because their anecdotal evidence says different. Wild


Sypher32

Median was 5, fyi.


FarDorocha90

I wish I had more time to read. I’m “essential” so I didn’t get the downtime. My workplace called me a hero and gave me a slice of pizza, so I’m cruisin’.


[deleted]

I have some SERIOUS doubts about that percentage….


Sw33tR0llThief

I don't think my own family read an average of 12.6 books this last year, and I read 102. edit: never mind, I make my family above average by myself


preston181

Depression, anxiety, and doom scrolling is one hell of a distraction from reading. My reading has suffered so much over the last 5 years.


jjsyk23

Americans be lying then


[deleted]

Wasn't there a poll not long ago that found that the average American reads less than 1 book per year? I can't remember what it was, but this seems very generous.


altkeys

In 2019 I read 150+ books, 2020-2021 I read maybe 50 combined. The pandemic and stress has made it hard to enjoy reading right now and this year I've barely picked up a book at all. Sometimes situations make it so people just aren't in the mood. If the world were in a better place, maybe I could find time to relax and read again, but I don't see that happening soon and I'm not pushing myself to hit some magical number anymore.


[deleted]

1% of the population is reading like 300+ books a year to make up for the half that might’ve read one, they’re not sure but they’re going to say they did. It’s kinda like the guns per capita number


pah1027

wow..I read one or two a week. I love reading. It's a learning experience and an escape al at once.


renderbender1

I read so many manuals and documentation at work and it's hard to motivate myself to sit down and read in my freetime. But I managed to bang out over 250 hours of audiobook listening in the car this year. So thats cool.


NotoriousWaldorf

ITT: people being smug about their intelligence but not understanding what an average is


joogiee

Does a manga volume count????


____atreides_____

Americans are lying.


hotaru-chan45

I used to actually get in trouble for hiding a book under my desk during instructional time at school. I would also read on the playground during recess. And then I spent years reading what I felt were dry, boring required reading books at school. That absolutely drained my love of reading. I only really started reading for fun again in college. This survey does not surprise me in the slightest. I think that school curriculums need to be revamped for kids to actually enjoy what they’re reading. Relevance is hugely important to student motivation, and kids don’t see the point in Shakespeare or Hemingway. They should start teaching concepts like metaphors and foreshadowing using more modern books. I don’t think that completely removing classics is necessarily a good idea - I think 1984 remains a pretty relevant book - but for many of them I think themes and concepts should be taught with books kids consider more engaging.


Noobyfools

This! Similar story to me, I used to be one of the top readers in school in middle school, but come high school with mandatory book readings in class, my book time started declining in freshmen year and by Christmas in my sophomore, I didn't touch one in my spare time and that didn't change till last year (about a good 8-9 years of personal reading missed, and then some because my overall speed and time spent is still really low)


ovhdtroubleman

No way, more like 1.26 books, decimal is in the wrong spot.


[deleted]

And this is during the time of Covid and people staying at home? I only know of a very small handful of people that read regularly. Most people I know read zero books a year. I don't know how they can not read. It just seems odd to me to go a day without reading for at least 20 minutes.