The habits of readers can be changeable and as savvy writers, it helps to know which way the wind is blowing. Right now, a growing share of Americans are opting to read e-books via tablets and smartphones rather than on e-readers like Kindles or Nooks. But there’s good news on the print front for those of us who are traditional book lovers: According to the Pew Research Center’s “Book Reading 2016” study, print books remain much more popular than digital books. In all, 73% of respondents had read a book, whether printed or digital, in the past year.
More findings about how readers are reading:
• More Americans read print books than read e-books or listen to audio books. 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 consumed book content via audio book (14%).
• Americans read an average (mean) of 12 books last year, while the typical (median) American has read 4 books in the last 12 months.
• More women have read a book (77%) than men (68%).
• E-book readership increased by 11% from 2011 to 2014 (from 17% to 28%), but has remained unchanged over the past two years.
• Nearly 40% of Americans read print books exclusively, while only 6% of readers prefer digital-only book formats.
• More than one-quarter (28%) of Americans read books in both print and digital formats (including e-books and audio books).
• In total, 34% of Americans have either read an e-book or listened to an audio book in the last year, but relatively few Americans read books in these digital formats to the exclusion of print books.
• Some 15% of e-book readers prefer a tablet, 13% like cell phones and only 8% use dedicated e-readers. Tablet and phone reading has surged in the past five years while e-reader usage has remained flat.
• Smartphones are “playing an especially prominent role in the e-reading habits of certain demographic groups, such as non-whites and those who have not attended college.”
Heartening to know that books in all formats are alive and well as we all write on!
Books have soul! Feeling it in your hands, turning the pages. imagining what the character looks like.
Hi Jacque,
Books have soul! So beautiful and so true! I’m with you and
believe that books are alive and have so much to give us!
Write on,
Karin