I'm Special

BoingBoing.net directed me to this site with all kinds of book and book publishing statistics. Here are some eye-opening ones (I simplified the list for this post): Who is Reading Books (and who is not) One-third of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives. Many do not even graduate from high school. 58% of the US adult population never reads another book after high school. 42% of college graduates never read another book. 80% of US families did not buy or read a book last year. 70% of US adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years. 57% of new books are not read to completion. Most readers do not get past page 18 in a book they have purchased. 63% of adults report purchasing at least one book during the previous three-month period. (Most were probably exaggerating). 53% read fiction, 43% nonfiction. The favorite fiction category is mystery & Suspense, 19%. Of the top fifty books, fiction outsells nonfiction about 60% to 40%. Fiction peaks in July at 70% but nonfiction reaches almost 50% in December. 55% of fiction is bought by women; 45% by men. Thirty percent of Americans surveyed by the Harris Poll say they would rather read a book than do anything else; twenty-one percent said watching TV is their favorite activity. That's the good news. The bad news is that only 13 percent selected "spending time with family." Each day, people in the US spend 4 hours watching TV, 3 hours listening to the radio and 14 minutes reading magazines. 70% of Americans haven't visited a bookstore in five (5) years. Customers 55 and older account for more than one-third of all books bought. People reduced their time reading between 1996 and 2001 to 2.1 hours/month. 2001: per capita spending on books per month was $7.18. Only 32% of the U.S. population has ever been in a bookstore. The time Americans spend reading books. 1996: 123 hours 2001: 109 hours 1996 to 2001 Consumer spending on book rose 16% Unit sales dropped 6% (Readers spend more and purchased fewer books) 2001: Households purchasing at least one book 56.5% The mean age of book buyers 1997: Age 15-39: 26.5% of the books bought 2001: Age 15-39: 20.8% of the books bought 1997: Age over 55: 33.7% of the books bought. 2001: Age over 55: 44.1% of the books bought