There's a piece about reading by The Tulsa World's Julie DelCour in the Sunday, Aug. 8 issue. It has to do with Tulsa's position (#21) in the literacy rankings of the 69 largest U.S. cities. Some of the statistics, compiled by Central Connecticut State University, and quoted here from DelCour's article, are chilling:
- A third of high school graduates will never read a book for the rest of their lives.
- 42% of college graduates never read another book after college.
There are more — like, most readers never get beyond page 18 of a book they have purchased.
So, Barnes and Noble (clearly in trouble and for sale) and Borders (hanging by a thread and for sale four years ago, but — surprise! — no takers) are being supported by a very small percentage of the population. If you take away people who come to drink something sugary at the caf? in each store instead of buying books or reading, the percentage is even tinier. Amazon has no caf?.
Most of our subscribers are readers. I don't know if they are book readers or not, but I would guess so. So, thank you. Thank you, very much. As chilling as the statistics seem, I doubt that there's much of a change over the last decade or so, and maybe we do not yet have e-book caf?s, but they are coming, I promise. Hmm.
