Thursday, January 3, 2008

More Americans than Canucks picked up a book in 2007 ?

According to this Ipsos-Reid poll.

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=81b3a991-6004-4ca8-8259-4d605e1cf767&k=50303

And in other news: 50 percent of Canadian readers lie about how many books they've read over the course of the year. Which would also explain the apparent interest in Pierre Bayard's new book "How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read" (which, by the way, I heartily recommend you don't read, just read this piece instead http://books.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2232830,00.html

Sorry, but I'm having a hard time believing that most Canadians who've read a book in the past year read on average 20 books, that's almost two a month. That's about my rate and I've got deadlines to meet. This is a country that is provincially book-ended with literacy - BC clocked in at an astounding 33 titles per year with Atlantic Canada (didn't know there was a province called "Atlantic Canada") registering a mere 22 in second place. As a Quebecois I hang my head in shame. We're apparently too busy listening to the latest Celine Dion album(s) to read books.

No comments: