What will life be like if people stop reading?

In 1937, 29% of American adults told the pollster George Gallup that they were reading a book. In 1955, only 17% said they were. Pollsters began asking the question with more latitude. In 1978, a survey found that 55% of respondents had read a book in the previous six months. The question was even looser in 1998 and 2002, when the General Social Survey found that roughly 70% of Americans had read a novel, a short story, a poem, or a play in the preceding twelve months. And, this August, 73% of respondents to another poll said that they had read a book of some kind, not excluding those read for work or school, in the past year. If you didn’t read the fine print, you might think that reading was on the rise. Other studies say no, and the decline in reading has serious consequences for all of us. Read this piece, “Twilight of the Books” in The New Yorker online.