April 3, 2012

There’s good news and bad news. As befits my always sunny worldview, we’ll do the good news first. According to new research from the Pew Internet and American Life Project, about one-fifth of U.S. adults have read an e-book in the past year. And if you expand that to include Americans over 16 who have used an e-reader device or app to read news articles or magazine-style features, the figure is 43%. E-book users tend to read more often than people who read only print material, Pew found. In particular, they read more books. A typical e-book user read 24 books in the past year, compared with the 15 books reported by typical non-e-book users. Also, a third of people who read e-content say they now spend more time reading than they did before e-books. This is especially true for people who own tablets and e-book readers. Currently 28% of Americans age 18 and older own at least one tablet or an e-book reader. And that's not even counting the people who read books on a Smartphone or iPod Touch app. For now, print reading material still rules the consumer market, however. Pew found that nearly three-fourths of U.S. adults read a printed book in 2011, and 11% listened to an audiobook. Print books are especially popular when people read to children. But, as common sense would dictate, print books are also the most popular choice when people want to borrow or lend a book, though the survey also found that just slightly more people prefer e-books over print for reading in bed. That’s the good news. On the flip side, Pew noted that nearly 20% of U.S. adults said they had not read a single book, electronic or print, in the past year. And that is indeed bad news.