A slow and painful death?

"Reading is that fruitful miracle of a communication in the midst of solitude." -Proust

I have always loved to read. I was the kid who would read the cereal box and the milk jug as I ate breakfast in the morning. And I am the geek who can spend hours, unknowingly, in a bookstore or library. For me, it's more than just the story. It's the sentence structure and form that I love, that inspire me.

In last week's issue of The New Yorker, an article horrified me (Twilight of Books by Caleb Crain). In the article, Crain give supporting evidence that reading is on the decline, not just in the US but across the world. Among the statistics is the main finding: "Between 1982 and 2002, the percentage of Americans who read literature declined not only in every age group but in every generation - even in those moving from youth into middle age. We are reading less as we age, and we are reading less than people who were our age ten or twenty years ago".

Many sociologists believe that reading books for pleasure will one day be some arcane hobby. So what's the big deal?

There have been numerous studies showing that that readers and viewers (those who primarily watch TV in this case) actually think and view their world differently. Readers remember more, are able to note inconsistencies, are better at critically thinking. Viewers of TV programming are less likely to remember facts and, because TV is more visceral and emotional, are more likely to tune out shows that present a conflicting viewpoint (which affects critical thinking ability). Apparently the Internet falls in-line with reading, but there is fear that if more of the internet turns to the YouTube model, it will soon evolve more towards television. Crain writes:

"It can be amusing to read a magazine whose principles you despise, but it is almost unbearable to watch such a TV show. And so, in a culture of secondary orality, we may be less likely to spend time with ideas we disagree with. Self-doubt, therefore, becomes less likely. It is easy to notice inconsistencies in two written accounts placed side by side. A comparison of two video reports, on the other hand, is cumbersome. Forced to choose between conflicting stories on TV, the viewer falls back on hunches, or on what he believed before he started watching. He thinks in terms of situations and story lines rather than abstractions."

Crain also points out that the decline of reading could change the fabric our country. Readers are more likely to play sports, visit art museums, attend theatre, take photographs, volunteer and vote. "Perhaps readers venture so readily outside because what they experience in solitude gives them confidence. Perhaps reading is the prototype of independence. No matter how much one worships an author, Proust wrote, 'all he can do is give us desires.' Reading somehow gives us the boldness to act on them. Such a habit might be quite dangerous for a democracy to lose."

I agree. And I understand that there is probably a strong correlation between higher socio-economic status and readers, which give us the time - and money - to visit those museums and volunteer. But I wonder if there is also a strong correlation between reading and being successful, no matter what your socio-economic background. I think reading makes you think outside of yourself, gives you the tools to write better, and allows your mind to work in a different way than just watching TV. It would be a terrible thing for our culture to lose that.

So the question is now, what do we do about it?