In this electronic age, books still matter. Such is the message of this story written by Karen Long in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “In 2006, Americans bought more than 3.1 billion books, generating $35.69 billion in sales, up 3.2 percent over 2005’s total, according to the Book Industry Study Group, the gold standard in measuring an admittedly murky business.
“The research group estimates the annual pile of cash will grow to nearly $42 billion by the end of 2011. That is not as robust as some would like, but it is securely in the black.” However, of all our free time, a recent study found that only 3 percent is spent reading. The story talks about how important books remain to our cultural conversation, despite the fact that most people spend their time reading from the screen rather than the printed page. The story highlights some of the important books published this fall.
The final quote is from Dave Ferrante, owner of Visible Voices, a new bookstore in Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood: “As much as people keep talking about the Web, I think they still have a natural love for the book, all that learning in one place.”
