Why Reading Matters

According to the 2008 National Endowment for the Arts "To Read or Not to Read" study (combined many national reports to measure reading of any kind in any medium):

• People who read for pleasure perform better academically, have higher-level and higher-paying jobs, and are active in civic life.
• The older you are, the more likely you are to read regularly and generally, the better reader you are.
• Every group of Americans is reading less than 10-20 years ago.
• The 18 to 35 age group was once the group that read the most, but currently, it's the group that reads the less. And, as the first generation of Americans who have been raised with electronic media, they read less well (comprehension scores are lower).
• Readers and non-readers both do the same things: they use the Internet, they watch television, they listen to the radio, they text and IM, and they have an iPod. The difference is that readers make time to read.
• According to Griswold, McDonnell, and Wright (2005), regardless of whether people spend time reading, they continue to list it as a social good and consider it important.
• "Voluntary reading involves personal choice, reading widely from a variety of sources, and choosing what one reads. . . . Individuals read to live life to its fullest, to earn a living, to understand what is going on in the world, and to benefit from the accumulated knowledge of civilization. Even the benefits of democracy, and the capacity to govern ourselves successfully, depend on reading." From Cullinan 2000.

Toward this end, the University of Michigan Press wants to support and encourage reading of books whether individual, in a classroom, or as part of a book club or reading group.

To learn more about setting up a book club in your classroom, click here to learn how Michigan can support student book clubs.

To learn more about book clubs for teachers, click here to learn how Michigan can support teacher book clubs.

If you are interested in our staff's recommendations (fiction and non-fiction) for your own reading enjoyment/pleasure/escape, click here.

REFERENCES

Cullinan, B.E. (2000). Independent reading and school achievement. School Library Media Research 3.

Griswold, W., T. McDonnell, & N. Wright. (2005). Reading and the reading class in the twenty-first century. Annual Review of Sociology 31: 127-141

National Endowment for the Arts. (2007). To read or not to read: A question of national consequence. Washington, DC: NEA.