People reading less (was: Re: women, men, reading, HP)

[sistermagpie]

> susanmcgee48176:
> > NPR : Why Women Read More Than Men
> > http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?
storyId=14175229&sc=emaf
> 
> What stood out for me about this article wasn't the HP portion
> (sacrilege, I know) but this sentence: "Young people, in general, 
read
> less than older people..."
> 
> That makes me really sad. I have books at home, at my parents' 
house,
> in pristine condition because I loved those books so much, not 
because
> I never read them. I remember blowing *all* my allowance (and any
> other money I came into) on books of all sorts - fiction, 
nonfiction,
> astronomy books, et cetera. I rarely read now (not including re-
reads)
> and am one of those "typical Americans" who read about 4 books a 
year,
> but I think that's a problem of time constraint, especially true 
when
> one speaks of people with families, so my guess would have been that
> young people read more than older people.
> 
> I feel a little sadder now.

Magpie:
There were a lot of articles this weekend about reading because the 
NEA did a survey that showed how much less people read. I remember 
one that was about how readers actually think differently than non-
readers and what that might or might not mean for the future.

Another thing I remember that I liked was something challenging 
claims made by some that if you want exercise for your brain video 
games were just as good or better because you had to think faster. 
The article pointed out that the kind of "exercise" you get from 
reading is totally different and depends on it being easy. When you 
read your mind can follow the reading easily enough but also have its 
own train of thought going alongside the story.

So no surprise--reading rules.:-)

-m