Re: Too much content?

From: "Mary E Tyler"
>
> On Jun 29, 2009, at 2:52 AM, Richard Fuller wrote:
>
>> That's an interesting observation. So far, though, I see 
>> bookstores
>> getting BIGGER, not smaller...they don't seem to be 
>> suffering from
>> any form of financial loss....eBooks are still in the 
>> hands of the
>> minority. Perhaps I'M the one who's old. It seems to me 
>> that kids
>> just don't read as much as us old folks....but then 
>> again, the
>> bookstores and all the multimedia can't be supported by 
>> just the old
>> agers....Perhaps my few is skewed... any observations??
>
>
> I think SOME kids do. My oldest daughter age 14, goes 
> through several
> books a week, much as I did at her age. In my youngest 
> daughters 3rd
> grade class, all but about 4 out of 22 were "goal busters" 
> meaning
> they had gotten 75 AR points for the year. There are many 
> kids who
> regularly get in the hundreds of AR points. For those who 
> aren't
> familiar with AR, a picture book is about half a point, 
> Harry Potter
> and the Chamber of Secrets is 14 points. The schools are 
> REALLY
> pushing and promoting reading. Still I am interested to 
> see how many
> kids KEEP reading books into high school because basically 
> the net
> offers a lot of reading without the necessity of buying 
> books or going
> to the library. And I always thought that AR was a great 
> way to suck
> all the fun and life out of books. My oldest still reads 
> like a
> vacuum, but she does not take AR tests.
>
> Anyway, I don't think it's accurate to say that fewer kids 
> are
> reading. I think more kids are reading than a generation 
> ago. Whether
> they KEEP reading into adulthood is anyone's guess and 
> whether they
> read BOOKS is anyone's guess. Myself, I read newspapers. I 
> seldom read
> books anymore. I write them, but I don't read them. 
> Howzzat?
>
> dej
>

I can add to that that - and I go back a bit - I don't 
remember all my classmates reading books. I suspect the 
proportions for print may not have changed, but that the 
ebook and online reading have gathered in more people to 
read substantial amounts.

And while sales of print books by stores and big online 
sellers may be counted as the turnover, and sales of 
conventional publishers by numbers, there are substatial 
sales that are direct using POD or small offset runs. It may 
take some time before some of these figures can be 
collected.

There are also thngs like the versions of Japanese story 
illustrated book [is that manga?], which have storylines of 
sophistication and should be included in the reading 
figures. They are a big step up from comics, which are 
themselves valid reading steps.

And I can only say dej that writing may take all the hunger 
for the sustained plot ;-).

Joseph Harris 



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