NEA Study Deeply Flawed; Americans are Reading Plenty
When the National Endowment for the Arts released a study that showed Americans are reading less than ever, media outlets around the country took up the battlecry predicting the downfall of civilization as we know it. Bookblog was skeptical. No one stopped to think. The NEA, a venerable institution, has an agenda to promote the arts (fiction). It's claim about American reading habits doesn't jibe with what's happening in this country. Consider this: There are more book clubs than ever in this country. Self-published authors have reached bestseller lists, school-age children made Harry Potter as hot as any pop star, and there's a new political book out there for every blip in the polls (and publishers wouldn't bother if they didn't sell). The NEA study didn't even include non-fiction, which is a the biggest share of the market right now. In a commentary for the Los Angeles Times, Marc Aronsen takes a close look the study and the numbers and tells us what went wrong and why they're inaccurate.