Booking Through Thursday: Statistics

Posted August 30, 2007 by Holly in Features | 8 Comments

There was a widely bruited-about statistic reported last week, stating that 1 in 4 Americans did not read a single book last year. Clearly, we don’t fall into that category, but . . . how many of our friends do? Do you have friends/family who read as much as you do? Or are you the only person you know who has a serious reading habit?

Don’t forget to leave a link to your actual response (so people don’t have to go searching for it) in the comments—or if you prefer, leave your answers in the comments themselves!

Holly Says:

I’ve been a reader since I was about four years old (reading for pleasure, I mean). As far back as I can remember, my mom could always be found with a book on hand. My grandparents are avid readers, too. But that’s about it. My sister recently started reading the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich, but otherwise she doesn’t read much for pleasure. My dad reads maybe..two books a year? And my brother doesn’t read at all for pleasure.

MM (my fiance for those who don’t visit my personal blog) hardly reads at all. And when he does..it takes him forever to finish a book. I think the last book he read was Flags of Our Fathers and it took him almost a year to finish it. Unless I read to him, he’s not interested.

I have to tell you, though, I’ve passed on my love of books to my children. My daughter loves to read and can finish a good size book (an R.L. Stine or the like) in a day when she sets her mind to it. And my son begs me to let him stay up “just fifteen more minutes, mom” to finish a chapter. It really made me sad when I read those stats. 🙁

Izzy:

The ones I know who read as much as I do, my grandpa and my uncle. They are always loaning me books to read. It just it takes forever for me to get to them. My mom enjoys reading, but it takes her forfreakingever to finish a book. She’s lucky to finish a book a year. Sad.

Joey, my hubby, hardly ever reads book. But his mom for some reason keeps giving him books. He ends up giving them to me to give away. I’d read them, but they are military history books. Not my cup of tea.

Wena:

When I was younger, my sisters read all the time. My sisters were actually the ones that got me started on my reading addiction. When I was younger, my Dad was always taking their books away from them when they didn’t do their chores and what not, but these days, they only read every chance they get…which isn’t much, because they’re always on the run. They don’t read for recreation anymore. Too busy, they say.

My parents don’t read anything aside from Church magazines and the scriptures…my brothers don’t read anything at all and some of my friends read and some of them don’t. I’m the biggest bookaholic in my family and circle of friends (well with the exception of Izzy, Holly, Daph and my other girls) …

My daughter loves to read. She’s always asking me to buy her books from her little Scholastic stuff at school and when I go to the bookstore and she has the biggest book collection of all the kids in our house, she loves to read and I’m glad that we share a love for books.

Alright, so there you go, our answers…what are yours?


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8 responses to “Booking Through Thursday: Statistics

  1. Reading this just made me realise that all my closest friends are readers. We’re not all compulsive readers, but we all generally love books and are happy to talk about them if they come up in conversation. I do have family and family friends who aren’t big readers, though. I remember my cousin saying something once about how she couldn’t get through one particular book and then making a general comment about not being into reading all that much and couldn’t see the point of if. I was so shocked! Books are … not so much huge, but an intrinsic part of my life.

  2. Sadly, neither my family nor my local friends read…. like…. ever.

    Well, read for enjoyment that is.

    I find that VERY disturbing since I’m such an obsessive reader. My hubby hasn’t read (or should I say finished) a book in the 11 years that we’ve been together. And I often look at my family (parents, grandparents, etc) and wonder what sort of genetic mix-up planted a reader like me in the land of TV watchers. LOL!

    On the positive side, my oldest daughter is a reader like me… and I think my youngest will be too. YaY! The reading ‘genes’ win!

    That’s great about your son, Holly! I can’t remember where I read it (I think in a sociology book) but boys read less than girls, ESPECIALLY as children/teens. So it’s awesome that he loves reading so much.

    All of my ‘cyber’ friends are readers though but it would be GREAT to have friends closer geographically to enable book-swapping.

    Does anyone here book-swap with friends? Does it work well?

  3. Ange – I book swap once in awhile, and it works if you both trust each other to take care of the other’s book and return it by the agreed upon time frame.

  4. Kat,
    My close friends are all readers, too, but that isn’t saying much since they’re all cyber-friends and you know most of them from here and various other blogs. LOL

    Ange,
    Both my kids love to read. Little Man is in the process of reading The Hardy Boys books right now. He can’t get enough of them. It’s fab!

    As for the bookswapping thing, I swap with my friends and mom/sister all the time. I think it’s a great idea. 🙂

  5. LOL! If she gets red-faced from TH sex scenes one can only IMAGINE what would happen if you got her to read a Lora Leigh. Too funny, Chantal.

    Holly – Isn’t it amazing how some books are timeless? The Hardy Boys. WOW!
    My oldest is currently enthralled with Erin Hunter’s WARRIORS series. She’s very into fantasy-type books.

  6. Chantal

    I have an aunt who loves to read like I do, but she is really slow. It takes her 2-3 weeks to read one book.
    My sister just started getting into books. She likes Tami Hoag, but nothing else. She gets red faced by the sex parts in TH books.

    I pretty much only have you all to talk to when it comes to reading.

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