Reading patterns for five generations

Here’s an infographic that is kind of interesting.

Here’s a summary:

Gen Z prefers fantasy to other genres.Millennials read more books than other generations.Gen X reads more online news than other generations.Baby Boomers rely on best-seller lists to find their books.The Silent Generation spends the most time reading each day.A preference for physical books spans all generations.

My first reaction: Oh, good, I’m glad Gen Z is into fantasy.

My second reaction: Wow, imagine on relying on best-seller lists for suggestions. Of course, even though my first thought is the NYT best-seller list, there are lots more lists that don’t focus so much on literary, such as the Amazon best-seller list and so on — right? Still, imagine making most of your reading choices by looking at those lists, any of them. What a strange idea. So few of those books would meet any specific person’s tastes, or so it seems to me.

My third reaction: Hello, of course the Silent Generation spends the most time reading. Retired people who have physical limitations are obviously going to spend more time reading. My dad reads basically all day every day, and thank heaven he likes books.

My fourth and strongest reaction: Really, people still read physical books? By preference?

I read physical books only when I have no choice / already have the physical edition. It is so much nicer not to have to pick up reading glasses that I will never again read a physical book by choice when I could get the ebook instead.

I am very puzzled by a few paragraphs where the text says, “As French readers get older, they are more likely to read for a hobby” and so on. French? What? The generation titles are specifically applied only to Americans, aren’t they? No one would say that someone in France is a Boomer or from the Silent Generation or whatever. I’m assuming “French” is an autocorrect error of some kind that for some reason wasn’t caught before someone hit “publish.” I wonder what the word is supposed to be? Anybody got a guess?

Anyway, the post is interesting, if you’ve got a few minutes to browse through the graphic.

Please Feel Free to Share: