research – BookAnon.com

April 11, 2026

Poll: American Readers Read Less Than One Book Per Month On Average

Yes, you read that headline right. According to recently released data from Pew Research, 51% of Americans say they had read “all or part of” 10 or fewer books in the past 12 months. In fact, more people answered that they had read no books in that period (25%) than had read 11 or more books during it (24%).

Of types of books read (a question where multiple answers were allowed), print remains king – and it isn’t particularly close. Even as those reading what I refer to as “dead tree edition” books has dropped since this survey began 15 yrs ago and is now down to less than 2/3 of Americans at 64%, that number is still more than double eBooks (31%) or audiobooks (26%).

Making my own habits certainly among the minority of overall readers. The currently projected 157 books for 2026 would be my lowest throughput since 2018, when I began my book blog, BookAnon.com, halfway into the year, and 100% of my reading is digital in some form. I actively don’t read from dead trees anymore anywhere I can possibly avoid them, even on forms and menus. Not from any environmental concern, I simply prefer the ease, convenience, and portability of screens of various sizes and/ or bluetooth connected devices for audio – and thus I fully embrace that this is a personal preference and don’t judge you (much :D) for preferring dead trees. (If I’m commenting about your choice of amusing yourself via slaughtering forests, it is primarily in jest – I truly don’t actually care and would rather you slaughter thousands of acres of trees so long as you read at all.)

One of the more interesting demographic crosstabs of this survey was actually among who is reading all these dead tree edition books. Specifically, more Zoomers (those currently 18-29 years old) – who we generally associate with all device everything – are actually reading dead trees (66%) than Boomers (those currently 65 years old or older) are (65%)! When it comes to digital books, however, the breakdowns proceed exactly as pretty well anyone would have assumed, with more Zoomers reading more digital books than any other generation, proceeding in order through Boomers having the least numbers of readers reading digital books of either variety.

Similarly, those who graduated college read more than those who attended some college classes who themselves read more than those with only a high school education or less. Again with “common knowledge” among booklandia on gender demographics of readers, more women (78%) than men (71% – a number that will shock some) have read at least part of one or more books in any format in the past 12 months.

And getting back to that base category of “read at least part of one book in the past 12 months”, we may see what may be the biggest shock of all as far as the demographic breakdown of these survey results: Zoomers (78%) read more than any other age group, including Boomers (73%)!

This post was originally posted to my Substack before being crossposted back to this blog and to my Twitter/X Articles.

November 8, 2024August 7, 2025

#BookReview: Selling Out The Spectrum by Liam O’Dell

Solid Enough Primer On The Topic Marred By Dearth Of Bibliography. This is one of those books where, as others have noted, O’Dell clearly has his own perspectives and they clearly come through, and yet he also does a reasonably balanced job of showing both sides to any given issue – while clearly favoring whichever side he does. For those perhaps unfamiliar with the Actually Autistic/ Autistic Adult community and the reasons it clashes so often with researchers of all forms and levels, this is a solid compendium of the issues at hand and an introduction to just how complicated some of them can be.

The primary blemish here is the dearth of the bibliography, clocking in at just 10% of the overall text – at least in the Advance Review Copy form I read weeks before publication. Adding to this is the editing/ formatting choices of at least this format – hopefully corrected in the full final form – that left footnotes in odd places that made it unclear at times whether one was reading a part of the narrative or a footnote, which got quite jarring indeed at times.

Still, for the actual information contained here, even while this particular Autistic doesn’t *fully* agree with many of the perspectives of the author, this truly does at least show the relevant issues and shows each of them from a variety of angles – which is always appreciated.

February 21, 2020

#BookReview: Thriving In Love And Money by Shaunti and Jeff Feldhahn

Solid Continuation of Decades Long Research. I first encountered Shaunti’s writing back *before* she began researching the things that would eventually lead her to much fame and this book, back when she was a *fiction* writer. Then she wrote a book called For Women Only nearly two decades ago… and has continued in that vein ever since, with this being the latest entry. Here, Feldhahn and her husband Jeff look specifically at how money shapes relationships and how each partner can understand both themselves and their partner in order to make the relationship stronger. Relying on research specifically for this book in addition to research and insight from previous books, this does a solid job of showing the root causes of much strife when it comes to money and will be yet another book quite a few therapists – Christian or not – recommend their patients read. I know the original books For Women Only and For Men Only helped me and some friends, and this one looks to have the same impact. Very much recommended.

This review of Thriving In Love And Money by Shaunti and Jeff Feldhahn was originally written on February 21, 2020.

December 15, 2019

#BookReview: Dangerous Earth by Ellen Prager

Inconsistent Bordering On Hypocritical. This book is divided into just five chapters – Climate Change, Volcanoes, Earthquakes, Hurricanes, and (effectively “Other”) Rogue Waves, Landslides, Rip Currents, Sinkholes, and Sharks. Thus, there really is a considerable amount of detail put into explaining each phenomenon and purportedly what is known and unknown and wished to be known about each. The analysis is largely lacking, however, and Prager tends to blame everything on climate change, which she speaks of in absolutist terms. (Indeed, at least twice she outright claims there is “no credible scientific debate” on the issue, despite there being quite a bit.) She tends to blame the rising costs of coastal damage in particular on her preferred bogeyman, despite at least one other work published within the last year (Geography of Risk by Gilbert Gaul) building a compelling case that it is actually an increase in coastal development that has led to much of the rising cost of coastal damages – quite simply, there wasn’t much on the coasts a century ago to *be* damaged. But Prager doesn’t even consider this factor at all.

Where she seemingly is unaware of her inconsistency bordering on hypocrisy is when she claims repeatedly that we have more than enough information in the historical record to “confirm” climate change… yet claims with near the same frequency when discussing volcanoes and earthquakes that we simply don’t have enough information in the *geologic* historical record to be able to make any significant determinations. Hmmm…

Recommended for the mostly detailed discussions, but be prepared to have about a boulder of salt in some passages.

(I don’t remember if this publisher requested it, but just in case, some legalese that I despise but try to tag on when requested: This book publishes in March 2020 and I am writing this review 10 days before Christmas 2019. Thus, this is very obviously an Advance Review Copy. All opinions are completely my own and freely given.)

This review of Dangerous Earth by Ellen Prager was originally written on December 15, 2019.