America: Land of the Bookworms

Perhaps it's due to the harsh economic times that call for a little literary solace, or the fact that books like Harry Potter and Twilight are really making their mark, but the latest survey from the National Endowment for the Arts shows that the percentage of American adults (mainly in the 18-24 category) who reported reading "novels, short stories, poems or plays" has increased nearly 4 percent, from 46.7 in 2002 to 50.2 in 2008, according to the Washington Post.

Dana Gioia, chairman of the NEA, speculates that one reason for the rise can be attributed to the inclusion of online reading in the 2008 survey. The surveys done years prior by the endowment, beginning in 1982, never included online reading as a category.

Moreover, Gioia justifies the increase as resulting from community-based programs such as Oprah Winfrey's Book Club and "The Big Read," a program led by the NEA in collaboration with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and Arts Midwest to foster community reading of certain books such as F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God.

"There has been a measurable cultural change in society's commitment to literary reading," said Gioia, according to the New York Times. "In a cultural moment when we are hearing nothing but bad news, we have reassuring evidence that the dumbing down of our culture is not inevitable."

In addition to the aforementioned reading programs, Gioia cites popular book series Harry Potter and Stephenie Meyer's Twilight, as well as efforts of teachers, librarians, parents and civic leaders, as cause for the rise in reading.

However, the survey reported a decline in reading for leisure, as the percentage of American adults reading a book not required for work or school fell from 56.6 in 2002 to 54.3 in 2008.

Jim Rettig, President of the American Library Association and university librarian at the University of Richmond, explained the rise in light of the recession, "People are discovering that you don't have to spend anything to read a book if you have a library card."