In Spite of What You May Have Heard, Some People Still Read

After only two weeks on store bookshelves, Dan Brown’s new book, The Lost Symbol, had sold more than 2 million copies. Normally I wouldn’t be so interested, although I was one of the first ones who bought his book and found it incredibly fast paced and hard to put down. What got my attention about its soaring sales was that there are still 2 million readers in America!

Lately, it seems that anytime my husband or I mention a book title that we’re reading, people tell us they don’t read. Ever! At first, I thought I had stumbled upon the only uninformed person in the country, but this has become a standard answer from people we meet. So okay, they get all their information from TV? That’s a scary idea, but indeed, that is what most people tell us. Why do they need to read a newspaper, magazine or book when they can get everything they need from TV. I’ll admit that I watch TV too, but I would hate to think that was the only source of entertainment and information available to me. Yet, if people continue turning away from published sources of material, that may one day be our only diversion except for the computer, and we all know information on it is dicey unless you know that the source is reliable and honest.

What’s really frightening is that most of the people we meet are retirees. I can’t help but wonder what they do with their time if they don’t ever read. Oh right, watch TV! I could understand if they’re working moms with kids at home who keep them steadily on the go. But they’re not. They have no excuse not to read.

I admit that while I was involved with a fulltime career plus active in various organizations, I didn’t read fiction at all. I definitely read books and magazines that covered my industry though. Then one day I picked up a novel and realized what I had been missing. People can claim novels are escapes from reality, or that they provide a broader view of society – it doesn’t matter. They are entertaining and they require using your imagination to picture what is being described. Meanwhile, TV requires nothing from the viewer except the fixed stare of someone whose imagination is in danger of dying from underuse. Still, 2 million readers is an encouraging number for those of us who write for a living. Without readers, we will become as extinct as--well--telephone operators.