Read 'em and weep...

... or not. The state of book reading in this country is pathetic. Here are some stats from the Erma Bombeck Writer's Workshop:

1/3 of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives.

42 percent of college graduates never read another book after college.

80 percent of U.S. families did not buy or read a book last year.

70 percent of U.S. adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years.

57 percent of new books are not read to completion.

70 percent of books published do not earn back their advance.

70 percent of the books published do not make a profit.

(Source: Jerold Jenkins, www.JenkinsGroupInc.com)

Now I don't feel so bad about the paltry number of copies my book has sold. In fact, a nonfiction book is considered "successful" if it sells 7,500 copies. Only 7,200 to go!

This means that the idiotic reviews that appall me so over at Amazon.com come from the top 20% of the population in terms of reading. But more on that some other time.