Book reading appetite is still large for Americans, and, it may come to a surprise to many that, it is printed books, the ones you hold in your hands, that continue to be favorites.
A new Pew Research Center study about Books 2016 reveals that a growing share of Americans are reading e-books on tablets and smartphones rather than dedicated e-readers, but print books remain much more popular than books in digital formats.
Highlight of the Pew study:
The share of Americans who have read a book in the last 12 months (73%) has remained largely unchanged since 2012. And when people reach for a book, it is much more likely to be a traditional print book than a digital product. Fully 65% of Americans have read a print book in the last year, more than double the share that has read an e-book (28%) and more than four times the share that has consumed book content via audio book (14%).
Good news and one more testimonial about one medium not totally substituting the other. It is not the end of the book as we know it, the one you may touch.
Personally, while I read many books on my iPad Pro, I have found myself buying at least three “old fashioned” print books to take with me in 2016. There is something special about the contact with ink and paper and I am not surprised about this study, as I still see many of my fellow travelers at airport lounges and on airplanes holding an actual book—and that includes some young folks, too.
This should make publishers happy. I also know of one particular friend and colleague, Tyler Brulé, publisher of Monocle and Financial Times columnist who only this past weekend wrote a piece from Hamburg, Germany that concluded with
“We really believe in the power of paper and magazines. It’s something that we do very well here.”
At least when it comes to books, many Americans apparently feel the same way.
Of related interest, in The New York Times
A productivity “app” that is very familiar
People are falling in love with a simple productivity system that just uses pen and paper
Highlight:
I’ve never been able to find a method that quite beats the flexibility and simplicity of pen and paper. Most productivity methods force you to work their way, rather than adapting to suit your needs. Pen and paper, however, can be used any way you like. I’ve always wanted to find a system that balances this flexibility with enough structure to keep you organized.
That’s where the Bullet Journal system comes in. Created by designer Ryder Carroll, the system aims to give the humble paper notebook a little more structure.