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[coalescent]

[Poll #980885]

Note: "An award" does not mean that you are indiscriminate and will read something just because it won A. N. Award. If you occasionally read books because they win the Whitbread, but couldn't care less about the Nebula winner, tick "yes" for "I have occasionally read a book because it was nominated for or won an award." Similarly, if you've been debating about picking up a book and then an award tips you over the edge, that counts as a yes too. Use your own judgement for what counts as "occasionally" or "often".

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[snowking.livejournal.com]

# In June 2002, the ONS Omnibus survey included a module on reading habits commissioned by the National Reading Campaign. It found that nearly half of adults had read at least five books or more in the previous 12 months, with almost one in five claiming to have read 20 books or more.
# A quarter of adults had not read a book during the same period, including almost half of males aged between 16 and 24.

Although other surveys reckon up to 40% of people are non-readers in the UK.

Other thing I found while noodling around http://www.literacytrust.org.uk, a survey on library users in the East Midlands:

What factors usually influence your choice in library books?
Prize winners - 17.3%

Top hilarity:

However, 40% said they had lied about having read certain books, "just so they could join in with the conversation".

The top book for impressing people is Lord of the Rings.

Yay statistics!

[secritcrush.livejournal.com]

hee *loffs you the best*

[ajr.livejournal.com]

There was a programme on TV a couple of weeks back called "The Human Footprint" or something like that, and was basically a roll call of statistics regarding what the average human gets up to over a lifetime.

The one that stuck in mind was "The average human reads 533 books in their life."*

This boggled me as it seemed an extraordinarily low number - I suspect I've read more books than that over my lifetime so far, and I very much hope that I outstrip it by a long way before my life is over (the thought that I could die and only having read, say, 1/7th of the books I own is terrifying).

I suspect it's all the non-readers dragging the average down.

Oh, and putting my professional hat on for a moment, as soon as a book wins the Booker Prize or the Orange Prize, reserverations for it will surge. And while not an technically an award in itself, Richard and Judy Book Club selections go like gangbusters.

*may not be that exact number they quoted, but it was certainly in the low 500s.

[snowking.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I saw THF. It also said a household is more likely to own two cars than two books.

Then I found the survey they'd clearly got this from and it was 200 couples and they'd found that 23% of couples had both read a book in 6 months vs 26% who owned a car each. It's a leap from that mad, flawed survey to say what the programme said, so take everythign there with a pinch of salt.

That said, it was great when they set fire to a lifetime's supply of farts.

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

Clearly I'm too cynical, because to me 500+ sounds higher than I would have feared. I mean, that's a book every two months for your entire life, which seems perfectly respectable. :)