Non-normalcy of Life

I read a week or two ago on various weblogs I frequent (wait a sec. My blog's spell-checker just red-lined "weblog." What? I thought... But.... waaaaaah!) that one in four Americans hasn't read a book over the last year. The average number of books Americans read every year is four, but even if you throw out that extra 25% who don't get around to any, the average only goes up to 7 books per year per person.

It must take like six of them to balance me out.

No, I mean really. I wasn't surprised to hear that bit of data, exactly, and I wasn't appalled exactly either (although what the poor things do on public transportation I'm sure I don't know). And it's not like I just plow through books like there's no tomorrow, either. Sometimes I read a lot, sometimes, not so much; there are a good six books I've been in the middle of for three months or more; there are several books that I've begun and abandoned; there are long stretches where I dip in and out of books; or just reread; or am reading plays instead; or whatever. And I realize I'm in an affluent family, my parents have college degrees, as do I, I work in a bookstore, etc. etc.

But when I heard that number I started doing a mental count and came up with between thirty and forty books I've read for the first time over the last twelve months, fiction and non-fiction, trashy and good, based on whatever was available where I was at the time, and the mood I was in and all that. Not counting books started and abandoned; not counting rereads, not counting anything online; not counting whatever I've read and erased from my memory (I'm trying to keep a book journal, with middling success). I'm also right now on my third mystery novel over the course of the last week, which is what's making me post about this now.

Like I say, it's not that I haven't met people who don't read, it's not that I think they're dumb or uneducated, it's not that I don't understand how busy people get or that I think I'm an egghead because I can't get my nose out of a book. On the contrary, it's that I can't seem to believe my lifestyle is so abnormal compared to everyone else in the country.

I mean, what do they do on public transportation?