꼭 햐야 할 일
이즈음의 소설류 책값은 한 페이지 당 거의 40원대에 육박해 있다. 지난 해만해도 거의 30원이었고
학술적 깊이를 가진 서적들이 4~50원이었다. 헌데도 글자는 거의 12포인트에 와 있다. 거의가 옛날
만화 수준이다. 또 놀라운 것은 종이의 질이다. 이건 서적용 이라기보단 거의 인화지 성질이다.
어디 부담스러워 책 잡기도 힘든다. 글자는 적으나 무게는 거의 배나 나가니 이거야 책 읽러라는 것임지
집안에 보관하라는 것인지 도무지 알 수가없다. 또 한 손에 들어오지도 않는다. 가벼운 종이로 좀 두껍게
하여 한 손으로 잡을 수 있으면 더 많이 팔릴 터인 데.
또 작은 분량을 늘릴려고 얇은 책들은 꼭 하드 커버에 양장판 거의서재 소장용으로 제본 되어있다. 전혀
소장할 가치가 없는 인스턴트성 내용들 인데도말이다. 그러니 이를 들고 다니며 읽는다는 것은 거의
불가능하다. 그러니 책읽기와는, 책과 가까이 하기에는 점점 거리가 생기는 것 아닐까.
미국의 조사기관이 밝힌 내용이다. 지난 한 해 동안 4명 중 한명은 한권의 책도 일지 않았다 한다.
세상은 부의 편중 현상으로 인해 아우성이다. 심화되는 빈익빈과 부익부를 말이다. 우리들은 양극화
현상이라고들 하더구먼. 물론 다른 이유도 많겠지만 그 주요 원인은바로 책읽기의 정도와 차이다. 점점
더 부자되는 그들은 그 바쁜 일상에서도 최소 1~2권의 책을 한 주에 읽는다. 그러나 점점 가난하여지는
그들은 1~2년에도 한두권도 안본다. 한다는 게 겨우 시작하고 머릿말만 보고 종 친다. 이러고도 머리에
붉은 띠 메고, 입에 침 튀기면서 '누구가' '누구때문에' 양극화 현상이 심화되었노라고 감히 핏대를 올릴
수 있을까.
지겨운 폭염이다. 정말 에어콘이라도 있으니 견디어내지 엄청나다. 그러할지라도 성장은 여름에만 있다.
그러니 폭염 속에 폭염과 더불어 자라지 아니하면 혹독한 X-MAS, 처절한 년말을 거둘 수 밖에 없다.
그래요, 이 여름에 성장발전증대해지던가 아님 가을겨울에 구걸하든가 둘 중 하나의 선택이죠
'가을은 독서의 계절'이라고 우리네 선배 유명 인사들이말 한다, 말 했다. 그러나 거건 새빨간 거짓말이다.
틀린 정의definition다. 독서라는 단어도 부적절하다. 왠 '독서'냐, 그냥 '책일기'가 대하기 훨씬 편하다.
독서라는 단어가 주는 무게, 부담스러움, 버거움, 번거로움 등이 책읽기를 오히려 멀리하게하여 당연히
해야 할 것을 마치 특별한 뭐라도 되는 냥 '취미'라 분류하여 자랑하고 내새우게끔 만들었다. 밥먹기, 피자
먹기, 콜라 마시기가 취미가 될 수 없다면 책일기도 마땅히 취미가 될 수 없다. 그냥 생활이고 일상이다.
그렇다. 책을 읽지 않는 세대가 시절을 살 주역이 될 것이고 역사 속에 주인동으로 살아 갈 것이다.
세상이 어떻게 달라질까. 무엇을 예상할 수 있겠나만 한 가지 확실한 것은 후배, 2세들에게 책읽는 재미를,
책읽는 맛을, 책읽는 즐거움을, 책읽기의 가치를, 책읽기의중요함을, 책읽기의 효과 등 책일기에 관련한
모든 것들을 개발하고 또 알려줘야 한다. 그러면 그들이 사회의 1~2%가 될 터이고 세상은 여전히
창조주의 의도에 걸맞는 아름다은 진화를 계속해 나갈 것이다
WASHINGTON - There it sits on your night stand, that book you've meant to read for who knows how long but haven't yet cracked open. Tonight, as you feel its stare from beneath that teetering pile of magazines, know one thing — you are not alone.
The survey reveals a nation whose book readers, on the whole, can hardly be called ravenous. The typical person claimed to have read four books in the last year — half read more and half read fewer. Excluding those who hadn't read any, the usual number read was seven.
"I just get sleepy when I read," said Richard Bustos of Dallas, a habit with which millions of Americans can doubtless identify. Bustos, a 34-year-old project manager for a telecommunications company, said he had not read any books in the last year and would rather spend time in his backyard pool.
That choice by Bustos and others is reflected in book sales, which have been flat in recent years and are expected to stay that way indefinitely. Analysts attribute the listlessness to competition from the Internet and other media, the unsteady economy and a well-established industry with limited opportunities for expansion.
When the Gallup Poll asked in 2005 how many books people had at least started — a similar but not directly comparable question — the typical answer was five. That was down from 10 in 1999, but close to the 1990 response of six.
In 2004, a National Endowment for the Arts report titled "Reading at Risk" found only 57 percent of American adults had read a book in 2002, a four percentage point drop in a decade. The study faulted television, movies and the Internet.
Who are the 27 percent of people the AP-Ipsos poll found hadn't read a single book this year? Nearly a third of men and a quarter of women fit that category. They tend to be older, less educated, lower income, minorities, from rural areas and less religious.
At the same time, book enthusiasts abound. Many in the survey reported reading dozens of books and said they couldn't do without them.
"I go into another world when I read," said Charlotte Fuller, 64, a retired nurse from Seminole, Fla., who said she read 70 books in the last year. "I read so many sometimes I get the stories mixed up."
Among those who said they had read books, the median figure — with half reading more, half fewer — was nine books for women and five for men. The figures also indicated that those with college degrees read the most, and people aged 50 and up read more than those who are younger.
Pollyann Baird, 84, a retired school librarian in Loveland, Colo., says J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter fantasy series is her favorite. But she has forced herself to not read the latest and final installment, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," because she has yet to file her income taxes this year due to an illness and worries that once she started the book, "I know I'd have to finish it."
People from the West and Midwest are more likely to have read at least one book in the past year. Southerners who do read, however, tend to read more books, mostly religious books and romance novels, than people from other regions. Whites read more than blacks and Hispanics, and those who said they never attend religious services read nearly twice as many as those who attend frequently.
There was even some political variety evident, with Democrats and liberals typically reading slightly more books than Republicans and conservatives.
The Bible and religious works were read by two-thirds in the survey, more than all other categories. Popular fiction, histories, biographies and mysteries were all cited by about half, while one in five read romance novels. Every other genre — including politics, poetry and classical literature — were named by fewer than five percent of readers.
More women than men read every major category of books except for history and biography. Industry experts said that confirms their observation that men tend to prefer nonfiction.
"Fiction just doesn't interest me," said Bob Ryan, 41, who works for a construction company in Guntersville, Ala. "If I'm going to get a story, I'll get a movie."
Those likeliest to read religious books included older and married women, lower earners, minorities, lesser educated people, Southerners, rural residents, Republicans and conservatives.
The publishing business totaled $35.7 billion in global sales last year, 3 percent more than the previous year, according to the Book Industry Study Group, a trade association. About 3.1 billion books were sold, an increase of less than 1 percent.
The AP-Ipsos poll was conducted from August 6 to 8 and involved telephone interviews with 1,003 adults. It had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
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AP Manager of News Surveys Trevor Tompson and AP News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius contributed to this report.
(This version CLARIFIES that people in the West and Midwest are more likely to read at least one book a year, but that Southerners who do read tend to read more books.)