All is perhaps not lost...reading rates increase

The Economist, the recent NEA report indicates that "the number of adults who said they had read a novel, short story, poem or play in the past 12 months had gone up, rising from 47% of the population in 2002 to over 50% in 2008." 

Most remarkable of all has been the rebound among young men. The numbers of men aged 18-24 who say they are reading books (not just online) rose 24% in 2002-08.

It remains to be seen if this is actually a trend...or an anomaly...or spurious (perhaps they have just changed how they count...lying with statistics is an not much of a challenge). I hope it is a real trend. Reading makes you smarter and we need more smart people...

Sadly, what has not changed, "is America’s “functional illiteracy” rate. Fully 21% of adult Americans did not read a book last year because they couldn’t, one of the worst rates in the rich world." And yet 30MM people a night watch American Idol.