Shuffling feet and looking rather guilty...

I imagine the international press digs headlines like this, "Half of US shuns literature." And half of me doesn't want to bring this story up because then I would have to criticize myself. Granted, I have read "literature" this past year, most of which has been for school but I also dusted off "Slaughterhouse Five." But literature has never been my first choice for reading. I like reading history and political books, and going on the web to search out articles that bash us Americans. Most of the time when I read articles criticizing our culture, I'm not insulted and usually in argeement with the author if their points are reasonable. But this article just makes me feel so, so.. American.

However, I don't think our shunning of literature is the story here. This is more shocking:

A total of 89.9 million adults did not read books in 2002. The number of books bought in the US in 2003 was reported in May to have fallen by 23m from the year before, to 2.2 bn.

89.9 million American adults don't even read books?! Holy shit. Could you imagine going through a year and saying to yourself, "I haven't read a single book!" I certainly can't. But, apparently, my neighbors can.

That's just amazing. No wonder the rest of the world thinks we're ignorant.