For the first time since 1982 when the National Endowment for the Arts began surveying Americans about their reading habits, the number of adults who said they read at least one novel, short story, poem or play in the previous year has risen.

Two stats jump out as positives beyond that: the biggest increases were among those 18 to 24, and here were 16.6 million more adult readers of literature in 2008.

Signaling the change, the NEA’s report – which in the past has been called “Reading at Risk” and “To Read or Not To Read” – is called “Reading on the Rise.”

It’s a startling reversal, given the slide the survey has documented since its inception. Still things are not as rosy as this might lead one to expect. When the survey debuted in 1982, it reported that 56. 9 percent of adults were readers. Even with a significant rise since 2002, that number now stands at 50.2.

Surprisingly, fiction accounts for the new growth in adult literary readers, according to the report. Unsurprisingly, reading of poetry and drama continues to decline. And in a sign that points to the future, “nearly 15 percent of all U.S. adults read literature online in 2008.”

Interestingly, at a time when we often talk of two Americas from a political perspective with shades of red and blue, the NEA reports its own “two Americas,” with half of the country identified as readers and the other half not. It would be interesting to see an overlay map to determine how closely these two versions of the two Americas align.

Labels: books