Book Monogamy, Book Fu, and Fun Things

The folks at Read Street want to know.  Are you a monogamous reader or polygamous? “No, not that kind of monogamy — that’s your business, and we don’t need to know about it. We mean literary monogamy. Do you read one book at a time? Or do you have two or more going at once — say, a novel, a nonfiction book and a collection of short stories?” I have to wonder- what does that analogy say about those of us who get paid to review books?  Yikes!

A book can be a helpful tool in self defense, according to this British film clip.

Every time I read about the surrender of the book to the digital age, I get the willies.  Here’s an excerpt from The New Atlantis, on “People of the Screen.” To wit: Nearly half of Americans ages 18 to 24 read no books for pleasure; Americans ages 15 to 24 spend only between 7 and 10 minutes per day reading voluntarily; and two thirds of college freshmen read for pleasure for less than an hour per week or not at all. As Sunil Iyengar, director of the NEA’s Office of Research and Analysis and the lead author of the report, told me, “We can no longer take the presence of books in the home for granted. Reading on one’s own—not in a required sense, but doing it because you want to read—that skill has to be cultivated at an early age.” The NEA report also found that regular reading is strongly correlated with civic engagement, patronage of the arts, and charity work. People who read regularly for pleasure are more likely to be employed, and more likely to vote, exercise, visit museums, and volunteer in their communities; in short, they are more engaged citizens.