Editorial: A Glimmer of Good News

Finally, something good to talk about amid all the gloom and doom. According to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), literary reading, defined as “novels, short stories, poems, or plays in print or online,” has gone up after declining steadily since 1982, when the NEA first began its survey. The jump is only 3.5% overall—from 46.7% to 50.2%—but the implications are huge. Until now, the youngest adults, those 18–24 years old, appeared to be giving up reading in droves, favoring other pastimes. That cohort has had the steepest decline of any group over the four previous surveys. In 2002 alone, 18- to 24-year-olds showed a 10.5% decline; now 51.7% say they have read a novel, or other literature, in the past 12 months, compared to 42.8% in 2002. It's the sharpest rise among all adults.

What a transformation from the dire note of the last NEA report in 2004, “Reading at Risk.” The survey also reveals growth among Hispanic Americans (up 5.4%), a group that has the lowest percent of literary reading (31.9%) of all ethnic/racial groups. Other highlights are that 84% of those who read literature online or download it also read print or online books, and 77% of those who read web-based articles or blogs also read books. One sour note is the drop in reading poetry (from 12.1% to 8.3%), attributed “in part to a steep decline in the percentage of women who read poetry.” (“Which women?” asks Marsha Howard, formerly with New York PL and now at Poets House, which began Poetry in the Branches in 1995. Howard just started a group on Facebook called “Women Reading Poetry”!)

Admittedly, I've always been a little skeptical of the NEA definition of literary reading. As a mystery addict, I certainly don't consider myself a “literary reader.” The primary “literary” reading I do is in my book group, which embraces nonfiction, too. Putting aside the other NEA categories like poetry and plays, the exclusion of nonfiction is unfathomable.

What of history, biography, memoir (some of which might be classified as fiction), travel narratives, and so many other nonfiction genres that are certainly literary? Great stories are told by great writers in these books. One can only assume the original creators of the survey wanted to eliminate books like The Scarsdale Diet (1979) and its ilk.

It's a little surprising then to see that, while omitting literary nonfiction, the NEA for the first time asked readers of novels and/or short stories to identify their favorite genres. Mysteries ranked highest, selected by 54% of respondents. “Other fiction” came in second (40.8%), followed by thrillers (32.6%), romance (28.5%), and sf (25.4%). But are these genres necessarily literary? I'll defend the writing in many mysteries against that of many novels touted as literary—and fans of other genres likely feel similarly—but plenty of junk gets published, too. Perhaps on the next go-round the survey might be expanded to include literary nonfiction.

Quibbles aside, Dana Gioia, outgoing chair of the NEA, deserves praise for making the continued decline in reading part of a national conversation that prompted action. In his preface to the new report, “Reading on the Rise,” Gioia not only toots his own horn but that of the many teachers, librarians, parents, civic leaders, and others who took him seriously and effected change, embracing programs like NEA's Big Read. That, of course, is modeled on library One Book, One City programs (see also “Big Read, Big ROI,” LJ 11/15/08).

As Jim Rettig, American Library Association president, noted in the New York Times (1/12/09), the 2008 data came out even before “the economy soured.” Statistics nationwide indicate jumps in library use. The Wall Street Journal (1/15/09) reports library visits up at some libraries by as much as 65% since 2007. At Cuyahoga County PL, OH, which launched a “Reconnect with Reading” initiative in 2008, circulation increased 8.1% over 2007; 54% of items checked out were books. The soon-to-be-released (2/15/09) LJ 100 book buying survey shows a 5.5% hike in circulation, the highest since the survey began in 1999, when circ took a slight downturn.

Despite the good NEA news, it's too soon to rest easy. Gioia's call to action fueled a reversal in the decline of reading. The reversal in our economic fortunes gives us the opportunity to continue that trend, as more and more Americans turn to their libraries, saving money and sharing resources.