The End of Books

I was sitting in a bar a couple of days after New Year's and I was trying to find some book readings to go to. Both the Seattle Weekly and The Stranger--weekly local newspapers that are mostly guides to events in the city--had no listings. I figured that it must be because of the holidays and I think that turned out to be the case.



Last week's issues left me just as disappointed (both dedicate less than one page out of almost a hundred to books and The Stranger doesn't even post book readings in their paper anymore, so it seems) and I think it's just dawned on me now that books are a form of art that is slowly disappearing. Well, not quite disappearing but let's say definitely on the decline. A large part of that has to do with video game and television I am sure. But those two forms of entertainment are never included in either issue. You could assume that the reader of The Seattle Weekly and The Stranger is more educated than the average Seattlite. Or maybe that's not true and people who don't watch much television or play video games still don't like to read that much, relative to say twenty or thirty years ago. I think that's probably true too. I think the big readers--there are only a few out there (I'd bet 3/4 are women) and the number is getting smaller. As a male, I must really be in the single digits as a percentage of the population, the terms being reading every day or a few times a week, particularly fiction.



As for the numbers, the numbers have gone up nominally, but it's not the sort of business that gets very good returns--it seems that you can get a better rate of return if you put your money in a savings account, speaking for the industry as a whole. I couldn't find any subset numbers for fiction, but I bet they're similar to the highlighted ones, or perhaps a bit higher due to Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code (whatever you have to say about it, it does create a buzz for books in general).

So to all the other writers out there: goodnight and good luck!