Tea, reading and other important topics…
Here are some statistics from 2003 conducted by The Jenkins Group:
• One-third of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives.
• 42 percent of college graduates never read another book after college.
• 80 percent of U.S. families did not buy or read a book last year.
• 70 percent of U.S. adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years.
• 57 percent of new books are not read to completion.
Shocking, right? I mention these statistics because I am currently picking out the books I’m going to read in 2013, drawing heavily from the Best Catholic Books of All-Time list posted by Brandon Vogt:
I’ll be posting my 2013 Reading List in a week or two. So what books do you plan to read next year?
How sad. Although I’m not actually surprised, unfortunately. I probably go to bookstores enough to make up for some of the 70 percent who haven’t been, though. 🙂
But I do need to start my list of books for next year. Brandon’s list is extensive. There are a couple on there that caught my eye, “Bridehead Revisited” being one that I’ve been meaning to reread for a while now. I started the Kristen Lavransdatter trilogy a few years ago, but never finished it (bought it used, so not part of that 57%), so need to tackle that again. I’ve also heard wonderful things about St. Teresa Benedicta’s “Essays on Women.” And I’m still trucking through St. Augustine’s Confessions so that will carry over into the new year, I imagine.