近距离内射合集

Here at Books on the Bosque we don鈥檛 sell too many magazines in our store due to the lack of readership for print magazines, but I make an exception for The Atlantic.

When the August edition was delivered, I pulled out a copy of the magazine, and the title of the issue made the hair on the back of my neck stand up: 鈥淭he Age of Reading is Over鈥� by Rose Horowitch.

As you can imagine, this isn鈥檛 good news for us bookstore owners. I immediately grabbed the magazine and read the article. After reading the article, I thought it might be a good idea to write about the findings raised when it comes to reading books.

The essay starts with a little history lesson on how the Library of Alexandria was built. According to legends, 2,300 years ago, King Ptolemy I of Egypt asked his court advisor to assemble the world's written works. Those who succeeded him continued in the quest of finding scrolls for the library. This library was so extensive that it was known that Aristotle鈥檚 own book collection was in the library.

By 400 C.E., the library disappeared.

According to the article, many scholars believe that the library鈥檚 disappearance plunged humanity into the Dark Ages. Some believe that the Library of Alexandria was a casualty of war, but contemporary historians tend to believe that the more mundane cause of death was due to negligence.

Fast forward 2,000 years, and now Americans are living in literary darkness and are consumed by the lights of cellphones, iPads and computer screens. The National Endowment for the Arts conducts the most comprehensive surveys on reading habits here in the U.S. and this is what they found: 51% of American Adults have not read a single book (short story, novel, audiobook, e-books, magazine, or newspaper) in the last year.

Please pick up a copy of this month鈥檚 magazine because it鈥檚 very informative, but I thought I鈥檇 pull some of the statistics for the purpose of this column.

鈥� Nearly 30% of American adults cannot paraphrase or make inferences from a multipage text.

鈥� Only 2% of American adults read to a child on a given day.

鈥� 29% of 13-year-olds say they rarely or never read for fun.

鈥� In 2004, the average adult attention span was 2 minutes 30 seconds. By 2012, it dropped to 75 seconds. In 2021, attention span fell to 47 seconds.

鈥� In a 2024 survey of third- to eighth-grade teachers, more than 80% said that their students鈥� reading stamina had declined since 2019.

This information is alarming, but all is not lost. You would think that these statistics that show a decline in readership should mean that bookstores like ours should shutter our doors, but there has been a rise in independent bookstores across the 近距离内射合集 States. Last year almost 400 independent bookstores opened.

I have personally seen incredible growth at our store and am heartened by the fact that I see so many young people stopping in to buy books. I really don鈥檛 care what people read, so long as they are reading.

We work hard to foster a love for reading and community. We have weekly author and poetry events, and 13 different book clubs that people can join. I always encourage nonreaders to visit a bookseller to help them get a book that they鈥檙e interested in and read 10 pages a day. It really doesn鈥檛 take long to read 10 pages, and with the number of hours people spend on social media, I don鈥檛 agree with the argument 鈥淚 don鈥檛 have time to read.鈥� You do!

In a world where 739 million adults cannot read or write (88%), please don鈥檛 take reading for granted. How lucky are we here in America where we have incredible access to literature. Keep reading and encourage nonreaders to get into books, so we don鈥檛 plunge into the Dark Ages.

Deborah Condit is the owner of Books on the Bosque, 6261 Riverside Plaza Lane, Suite A-2 or at .