Decline in reading?

Sent: Thursday, July 15, 2004 7:42 PM A new study by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) called "Reading at Risk" has found that fewer than half of Americans over 18 now read novels, short stories, plays or poetry, and that this increasing indifference to literature holds in virtually all demographic areas. Calling the survey results "deeply alarming," NEA chair Dana Gioia says, "What this study does is give us accurate numbers that support our worst fears about American reading. It quantifies what people have been observing anecdotally, but the news is that it has been happening more rapidly and more pervasively than anyone thought possible. Reading is in decline among all groups, in every region, at every educational level and within every ethnic group." Men (37.6%) are doing less literary reading than women (55.1%); Hispanics (26.5%) are doing less than African-Americans (37.1%) and whites (51.4%); and all categories are declining. But the steepest declines of any demographic group are among the youngest adults. (New York Times , 7/8/04). http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/08/books/08READ.html RH: Literary reading? Novels. short stories, plays or poetry? These are archaic literary forms. The modern form of literature is journalism, faction, not fiction. It the survey simply means that people are reading things appropriate to our age, that is fine. But if the survey means that people are reading less, which I think is the case, it is one more proof that our civilization is receding.