Books and Readers

Cruising around, late at night, I happened across a link I cannot replicate, about the state of the publishing industry. The quoted statistic was one-quarter of Americans will not read a single book this year.

To offer a counterpoint, the same article suggested that hardback book sales are up. E-Books are selling more. Super Best Sellers like Paterson are launching pulp-like lines of shorts.

But fewer people are reading books?

Books and Readers

Then, there was another link, again, I’m not sourcing any of this, which suggested the Millennials are readers. Readers of books and e-books.

In order to compete in the post-modern world, again, another un-linked source, reading gives the edge.

So if book sales are up; no, down; no, up; then where does that leave me?

When I read a book, I tend to write about it. Sometimes long, sometimes short, sometimes nothing more than a notation that I finished reading that one novel/text.

With books, with literature, it’s possible to span centuries and continents, other worlds, even, and continue education.

What’s curious, my reading habits have changed. I’ll tend to read “fiction,” especially whatever is considered popular fiction, as a digital text. Even magazines, now, espcially with the New Yorker set-up like it is. (That magazine is also a good source of book reviews; although, not all books reviewed are as good as a critic might claim.)

Think I’ll stick with what I do, as it serves me, althogh, I’m unsure of just how many it does continue to serve.