Whenever a television or movie adaptation of a novel or series of books comes out, those who have read the books will make it their duty to let everyone know they were a fan of the story before it hit the screen. But is that really a bad thing? We might poke fun at our friends who, for some reason, think them having read some book makes them better than everyone else around them. But the fact of the matter is reading is a dying pastime. A 2015 survey reported that the number of children reading for pleasure dropped 10% over the past four years. Not only that, but almost a quarter of American adults didn’t read a single book in 2014. This, of course, isn’t to say that they didn’t read anything – it’d be hard to imagine this percentage of people went a full year completely avoiding the written word altogether. But it is astounding to think that many people go through life without ever opening another book once they leave high school. At any rate, we certainly can’t fault those of us who choose one form of entertainment over another. If a person wants to know the story behind The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, they don’t have to spend upwards of thirty hour reading the books; they can simply watch all six movies in the series (taking up about twenty hours of their time). There is no doubt that television and movie watching is on the rise, while reading for recreation is declining. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean nobody reads anymore. So while we might at first look at some of these statistics and think reading as a whole is dying, we should realize that it’s actually the book that’s dying as a medium. We’ve just learned different ways of reading. Infographic Source: Cartridge Discount
Featured photo credit: Bookworm vs. Film Buff / Cartridge Discount cartridgediscount.co.uk via cartridgediscount.co.uk
