Ten Things Everyone Should Know About Reading in America

"A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read."
-Mark Twain

I set out with high hopes to write this week's blog about books and reading habits in America.  I'm not exactly sure what I expected to find.  I usually let the questions come to me at the computer and get surprised by what I discover.  This week was certainly no exception.  But very depressing...

1.  America is the only free-market country where the current generation is less educated than the previous one.
2.  The average American grown-up reads less than 1 book per year. (The average American college graduate reads only 5 books in his life after graduation, and 33% of high school graduates will NEVER read another book.)
3.  The average literate adult reads 300 words per minute.  (The average 3rd grade student reads 150, 8th grade student 250, college student 450, high level exec 575, college professor 675, speed reader 1,500...and the world speed reading champion reads 4,700 wpm.)
4.  Software exists that allows normal readers to read Harry Potter in 90 minutes.
5.  Nearly 2/3 of students who can't read proficiently by the end of fourth grade will end up in jail or on welfare.
6.  Nearly half of American adults are poor readers.  (About 44 million of them can't read stories to children and 46% can't understand the labels on their prescription drugs....14% are illiterate.) 
7.  Less than half of families read to their kindergarten-aged children.  And studies show there is a 74 point gap in achievement between classrooms with high parental involvement and those with low parental involvement.
8. The average American spends 10 times more money on music and TV than he does on books and reading.
9.  In 2012 my top ten selling books were: 1.  Fifty Shades of Grey, 2. The Hunger Games, 3.  Fifty Shades Darker, 4. Fifty Shades Freed, 5. Catching Fire, 6. Mockingjay, 7. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel, 8. Fifty Shades Trilogy Box Set, 9. The Mark of Athena, and 10. Gone Girl...In 1952, they were 1.The Silver Chalice, 2.  The Caine Mutiny , 3. East of Eden, 4. My Cousin Rachel, 5. Steamboat Gothic, 6.  Giant , 7. The Old Man and the Sea, 8. The Gown of Glory, 9.The Houses in Between, and 10. The Catcher in the Rye.
10.  Reading makes you more likely to exercise, stave off Alzheimer's, empathize, and be foxy.


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