Sad day.

The Pew Research Center reported last week that “nearly a quarter of American adults had not read a single book in the past year.  As in, they hadn’t cracked a paperback, fired up a Kindle, or even hit play on an audiobook while in the car.  The number of non-book-readers has nearly tripled since 1978.”

I can’t imagine life without books.  Some of my best childhood memories involve books.  The red Child Craft books full of poems and stories, Nancy Drew mysteries, the Little House series.  I kept it up as an adult and now I usually read around 20 books each year, although in 2012 I burned through 41.  Last year, however, I read a measly 12 books.  What happened?  Am I about to become a “non-book-reader” statistic?  Never!  I know exactly what happened.

First, our church had a “read-through-the-Bible-in-a-year” program in which I took part.  (So I guess you could say I read 66 books.)  Keeping up with that demanding reading plan did take a chunk of time, but it was so worth it.

Second, I bought an iPhone.  I’m embarrassed to admit how much time that cool little gadget sucked up.  Shudder.   Facebook, Pinterest, Words with Friends.  I am back in control now.  Pretty sure.

Third, I subscribed to Gospel Ebooks.  Every day these nice people send me a list of books that are dirt cheap or even free.  Every day.  FREE.  Books.  So my Kindle got loaded up and I’d read a few chapters out of a new book, but then would get distracted by the next day’s free offer.  And so it went.  I’m working on this gluttonous addiction.

I plan to pick up the pace this year.  And I better.  My current “Books to Read” list has 170 titles on it.  Plus, there are 26 unread books on my Kindle,  a pile of 8 books by my bed, and 13 must-reads on my bookshelf.  At the rate of 20 books a year, I’ll be almost 65 years old by the time I finish.  Then I will retire….and finally have time to do some serious reading.

“I still find each day too short for all the books I want to read….”  John Burroughs