what if everyone read one of four books?

The Institute of Museum and Library Services and the National Endowment for the Arts are getting together to correct the allegeddramatic decline in literary reading” with a program called The Big Read. I’m sure librarians won’t mind getting some grant money, but can we admit that the decline in literary reading isn’t the same as a decline in reading, or book buying, or library attendance?

2005 reading list, a year end summary

Time for the annual recitation of the books, same as last year, 600+ posts later. Thanks to some handy last-minute coding by Greg, it’s much easier for me to make a list of all the books I read in 2005. Yes I love LibraryThing, no I am not replacing my booklist with it.

number of books read in 2005: 86
number of books read in 2004: 103
number of books read in 2003: 75
number of books read in 2002: 91
number of books read in 2001: 78
average read per month: 7.2
average read per week: 1.7
number read in worst month: 3 (November, December)
number read in best month: 12 (March)
percentage by male authors: 74
percentage by female authors: 26
fiction as percentage of total: 55
non-fiction as percentage of total: 45
percentage of total liked: 84
percentage of total ambivalent: 14
percentage of total disliked: 2

on reading: books v audio books

I count audio books on my reading list, same as all other books, as long as they’re unabridged. Two links about audiobooks, the New York Times writes in defense of audiobooks in Loud, Proud, Unabridged: It Is Too Reading! while audible.com has been strutting around with this “edgy” ad campaign at dontread.org, while I applaud their chutzpah (and their printable DON’T READ posters) I’m always a little squicked out when a for-profit entity sells me stuff through a .org domain.

Speaking of audiocontent, take a listen to this recording of Ranganathan talking about Dewey from a 1964 recording (it’s noisy at the beginning, stick with it)

the illiterate libraran, a community library in an impoverished Brazilian neighborhood

The Community Library, 18th Street. A labor of love library in Sao Goncalo, Brazil.

The house has been christened, as the big, hand-painted sign on the roof proudly announces, the Community Library, 18th Street. On busy afternoons, it’s standing room only. Patrons vie for one of the mismatched chairs, which scrape along a floor lined with discarded tiles that Leite and his friends scrounged….

Brazilians are handicapped by lack of access. Government officials say that nearly 1,000 of the country’s 5,500 municipalities have no public library. Buying a book is even less of an option….

A study in 2001 estimated that 16% of the population owns nearly 75% of all the books in Brazil — hardly surprising considering that a standard paperback routinely sells for about $15, or one-eighth of the minimum monthly salary.

Moreover, illiteracy remains high; 16 million Brazilians older than 15 cannot read or write.

[thanks jesse]