Last night was wonderful!!! There was fabulous music, a mini dramatic performance that I was quite impressed with, and an exceptional speech given by Mr. Fred Adams of the Utah Shakespearean Festival. As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, I was unsure of Mr. Adams connection to Tom Sawyer (our Big Read book) and it turns out he hasn't much of a connection and focused his remarks instead on the value of books and the need for reading.
Here is what I learned from him last night:
1/3 of high school graduates will never read another book after graduation.
42% of college graduates will never read another book after graduation.
80% of families in the U.S. have not purchased or read a book in the last year.
Those numbers make me literally sick to my stomach (especially the one that shows that an increase of education from high school to college results in less reading!!!).
I implore you to go read something! And don't come back until you do--that's right I'll give up my rather small readership if it means a book gets read.
Here is what I learned from him last night:
1/3 of high school graduates will never read another book after graduation.
42% of college graduates will never read another book after graduation.
80% of families in the U.S. have not purchased or read a book in the last year.
Those numbers make me literally sick to my stomach (especially the one that shows that an increase of education from high school to college results in less reading!!!).
I implore you to go read something! And don't come back until you do--that's right I'll give up my rather small readership if it means a book gets read.
5 comments:
shocking statistics (really).
I'm off to do my part, and read. I'll even take one for the proverbial team, and read extra for someone else.
I was going to say "shocking," but Jenny already did. Perhaps I need to go read the thesaurus.
Those are crazy statistics! I almost can't believe it. I'll go read right now, just for you.
That’s as depressing as when you posted what Americans eat a while back...they compared families and they food they eat in each country remember that? I am reading My Sisters Keeper, not that impressed.
Denise--did you see the movie? I've heard generally good things aobut both but nothing so good that I have bothered with either one.
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