While not connected with the Pew Research study of reading patterns, another round of observations has just been released, and we’re looking at it separately because it draws different conclusions from different standpoints.
The current National Endowment for the Arts Annual Arts Basic Survey, which covers 2013 to 2015, includes a look at “literary reading”—and that’s a term we advise you to take seriously. The focus of NEA literature programs overall is largely in the realm of “poetry, plays, short stories, and novels,” as well as literary journals.
NEA literature director Amy Stolls helpfully guided us to this Arts Data Profile on the newly released info. Here’s the trend for literary reading by US adults:
- 1982: 57 percent
- 2008: 54 percent
- 2012: 47 percent
- 2013: 45 percent
- 2015: 43.1 percent
The impression is that we’ve been going to the dogs ever since 2008. For demographic details, click-through the interactive graphic on the NEA’s website. The NEA survey finds that 49.8 percent of US adults who read literature are female, while 35.9 percent are male. And there’s a fairly stark difference in reading age: NEA’s results see younger adults as lighter readers, while Pew’s (above item) saw younger adults as more likely to have read a book within the past year.
But that’s the distinction. Pew is talking about people having read “a book.” The NEA is talking about a relatively narrow band of “literary reading.” Apple vs. reddish orange.
Bottom line: Certainly valuable for its role in literary life—such as the recent expansion of the Big Read to include contemporary titles—the NEA’s literature program is nevertheless comparatively focused on that capital-L “Literature” sector of publishing and readership. While there’s no pleasure in seeing the survey’s estimation of a decline in that sector, at a time when the book’s forms and formats are multiplying, we should interpret these outcomes with care. Like people and their arts, few surveys are really created equal.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
