Reader Madness

      From the "Whoda Fuckin' Thunk It?" file, there's this piece from today's Grope and Flail which features these words that would make even Captain Obvious grimace:

“We have a lot of functionally literate people who are no longer engaged readers,” Mr. Gioia said in an interview with Associated Press. “This isn't a case of ‘Johnny Can't Read,' but ‘Johnny Won't Read.”'

The likely culprits, according to the report: television, movies and the Internet.

Okay, that observed, some of the numbers are worth noting: only 43% of people surveyed between 18 and 24 are reading, a number that should be even more disturbing when one factors in the number of people in this age group that are "mandatory" readers (i.e., students being forced to trudge through The Scarlet Letter as if it were the Canadian arctic).   Among adult men, only 38% are readers, which is nothing less than disgraceful.   Hey, ladies, you know what I mean-- you know what they say about men with big libraries?       (And Doctor J's is large and uncircumscribed.)