Adult age reading is on the rise (AP/Delmarva Times)

[eppur_se_muova]

NEA study showed higher percentage increase in 2008

SALISBURY -- This month, the National Endowment for the Arts released a study that showed the percentage of American adults who said they had read at least one novel, short story, poem or play in the past 12 months has risen.

The NEA report "Reading on the Rise: A New Chapter in American Literacy," is based on data from "The Survey of Public Participation in the Arts" conducted by the U. S. Census Bureau in 2008. This new growth reverses two decades of downward trends cited in previous NEA reports such as "Reading at Risk" and "To Read or Not To Read."

For the first time in the history of the survey -- conducted five times since 1982 -- the overall adult literary reading rate has risen from 46.7 percent in 2002 to 50.2 percent in 2008. The most dramatic increase is among college-age students, who previously showed the most significant declines.

However, the number of adults reading some form of literary work is still not as high as it was in 1982 or 1992, and the proportion of adults reading poetry and drama continued to decline.

"It certainly raises all types of questions," said Ernie Bond, associate professor of elementary education at Salisbury University whose area of concentration is Children's Literature. "It makes you wonder if the definition of literature is changing? Are people actually reading more of what you would traditionally (classify) as literature?"
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more: http://www.delmarvanow.com/article/20090126/NEWS01/901260309

Was Bu**sh** such a bad example of voluntary illiteracy that people finally realized how unappealing it is?

Adult-age reading is up about 14000000% at a certain Pennsylvania Avenue adress.