Erotica By Helen E. H. Madden

The April 25th opinion column by Kathleen Parker of the Orlando Sentinel stated people who read books are a dying breed, and that newspapers are only helping them into the grave. Apparently, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has recently fired its book editor in an effort to cut costs, a move that has many people, including Ms. Parker, up in arms. I have to admit, I think it sucks too. My local newspaper gives short shift to book reviews. We get a single page each week in the Sunday paper that includes maybe two book reviews and that’s it. I would kill to have an actual book section in my newspaper. In fact, one of the joys of visiting my in-laws in D.C. is that I can steal the book review section from their Washington Post and enjoy it on the drive home. You see, I love reading about books almost as much as I love reading books.

So I agree it’s a tragic loss that the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has decided to do away with their book editor. However, I think Ms. Parker goes a bit far in stating that this is a sign of the end times for literacy. She quotes a 2004 report from the National Endowment of the Arts as stating that fewer than half Americans read literature, and that literary reading has dropped 14 percent. I have some questions about this.

First off, how do I get a copy of that NEA report, because I’d like to take a look at it? Yours truly suffered through a course on research and statistics in grad school, and the one thing I definitely remember from that is that numbers in a report can be massaged or misinterpreted to look like anything. So between 1992 and 2002 the percentage of Americans reading any book dropped 7 percent, and the percentage of Americans reading literature (defined in the op-ed piece as non-work related reading of novels, short stories, poems or plays) dropped 14 percent. Is it possible that Americans are reading something other than books, like say magazines or (god forbid) blogs and websites? When I want to read short fiction, I buy a magazine like Asimov’s or I visit the ERWA.

Which leads me to my second question - Ms. Parker’s definition of literature. Are we talking novels, short stories, poems and plays in all genres of fiction, including sci-fi, fantasy, horror, mystery, romance and erotica? Or do those not count as “real literature?” I’d like to know, because it could make a difference.

Third, if we’re not reading books, does that only mean we’re not reading printed books, or did anybody even bother to take a look at the number of e-books folks read these days? I have a vested interest in this, as my forth-coming novel is being e-published. In fact, a lot of erotica writers are e-published. Did anybody count our readers?

Fourth, Ms. Parker makes a connection between the decline of newspapers and the decline of reading in general. If newspapers don’t promote books to people who read (because as she rightly points out, if you read the paper, you probably read books), does that really impact the number of books being read? I would have thought people were reading less not because newspapers don’t review books anymore but because people have less leisure time these days than in decades past. The reason I read less these days has nothing at all to do with my local paper’s pathetic book section and plenty to do with the fact that I’m a working mom who has no free time to spare. I’d like to see if there’s any correlation between the decline in leisure time and the decline in reading books.

I think Americans are reading. We’re just not reading what Ms. Parker and the NEA expect them to read. I may not read a lot of books, but I am reading. I read my pathetic local newspaper. I read two or three magazines a month. I read stories for my writers’ group. I read blogs, just like you’re reading right now! So I don’t think we’re illiterate. If Ms. Parker doubts that, maybe she should take a look at bloggers. We might not be Herman Melville or Virgnia Wolfe, but we’re literate enough to write, and if you’ve looked at the blogsphere, you know we’re doing a lot of writing.

Labels: Reading

Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Is Anybody Reading This?