I always think it's very sad when someone comes to my house, beholds the mighty Wall of Books, realizes there's more bookshelves everywhere, and says, as if it's a bad thing, "Do you really read all these books?"
My mom keeps telling me to leave some of my books at home, as I keep on accumulating more and they become somewhat of a hassle to pack up and move, but I've refused. Of course I don't have time to read them all, but there's something intangibly wonderful about having them with me, to see them and touch them. I told her they keep me sane, but she can't seem to wrap her head around that concept.
True, but IMO the stunning thing about that article is the precipitous decline over the last decade or two--it's not that you'd ever expect everyone, or even every reasonably intelligent person, to be a book lover, but the decline part is especially depressing.
I'm not really stunned by it. More options on TV, ookier hours and commutes, more people willing to answer honestly...
Signed, has not read a work of fiction without pictures for pleasure outside of one or two genre reads that failed to satisfy for since, oh, six months ago.
One of my sisters is not a reader. (She's also the only blonde in the family, and feels at more at home in SoCal than on the East Coast. We think she may be a pod person.)
My mother is the original Book Queen, but she still complains about my books. I think it is just a mother thing, in some ways.
The other thing to remember is the changes in demographics over the last ten years. There's a boomlet of people just getting out of college now, and their grandparents are dying off -- so, people for whom reading was a default entertainment are dying. And as for fresh-from-college? I didn't read an awful lot of novels those first 3 years out of college. Some of that was graduate school, but not all of it -- the rest is accounted for by a very large consumption of fanfic (which I bet does not count).
But yeah -- I probably didn't read a new-to-me novel but once every 6 months during that period. I just wasn't up to it then, although I am now.
I'm not really stunned by it. More options on TV, ookier hours and commutes, more people willing to answer honestly...
My commute actually helps me find time to read, being on the train. There's not much else to do. (Driving, obviously, would be a bit trickier, but I'm willing to give it a shot.)
My mom keeps telling me to leave some of my books at home, as I keep on accumulating more and they become somewhat of a hassle to pack up and move, but I've refused.
That's funny, my mom threatened to line the driveway with my books if I didn't come over, pronto, and remove them from her house. Can I have your mom?
more books for us!
that is my new standard response for people who don't enjoy what I enjoy. more for me!
I didn;t read a book for my own enjoyment for probably 4-5 years from junior year highschool to junior year college. The summer after my junior year, I lived without a TV and I read 11 books and I was AMAZED with myself. Now I read 3-4 a month, but that is more than most of my friends.
and their grandparents are dying off -- so, people for whom reading was a default entertainment are dying.
in my family, my generation is the most active readers. Neither of my grandmothers read novels at all. One doesn't read anything except the newspaper, and she was a teacher.
P-C, I'd be happy to let your mom store some of my books if it would make her feel better. Not my favorites, obviously, because I find, like you, that having them close is a tactile pleasure. She could have some of the klunky ones I've hung on to since the Seventies that are shelved behind the couch. I might possibly consider getting rid of them if I move to a place with lots of stairs, but otherwise, hah!
