Wednesday, August 22, 2007

What is wrong with books?

The Associateed Press released a AP-Ipsos Poll yesterday that shows that one in four Americans didn't read a single book last year. Nont one. Not even a Harry Potter book. Curiously, book sales are flat despite the fact that the AP-Ipsos Poll suggests that more and more Americans are finding other ways of spending their time reading books. This suggests that the ones that are reading are actually reading more books. Also shown in the poll is a bunch of data that you would likely expect. Out of Women that read they tend to average nine books a year versus men who read a mere five (it doesn't say who reads the more interesting stuff ;). So it would seem that we now need to add the death of the traditional book to the slow painful death of the newspaper...

If you want to read the details of the Poll click the link below. It has all sorts of interesting facts. For example of the books that were read the most popular were the Bible and other religious texts at 64%, whereas business books got a mere 4%.

http://www.ipsos-na.com/news/client/act_dsp_pdf.cfm?name=mr070821-4topline.pdf&id=3613

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Tim,

As a colleague and the agency for TerraPass, I urge you to do both. Buying a vehicle that can run on alternative energy and has good gas mileage helps the environment. And if you’re not in love with the Prius, there are other hybrid vehicles and manufacturers. In addition, purchasing carbon offsets funds projects that produce clean energy. And if you start with a TerraPass, you may become an alternative energy convert. Roughly 25 percent of TerraPass users switched to a hybrid after purchasing their TerraPass.

Tim Dyson, CEO of Next Fifteen said...

i think you meant to post this to the entry below it but your point is well taken. I do wonder though about spending the cost difference on carbon offsets. it would appear that I could offset a LOT more by doing that.