"In 2008, book publishing will bring in about $15 billion in revenue in the United States, according to the Book Industry Study Group, a trade association.

One can only wonder why, by the Study Group’s estimate, 408 million books will be bought this year if no one reads anymore?

A survey conducted in August 2007 by Ipsos Public Affairs for The Associated Press found that 27 percent of Americans had not read a book in the previous year....Happily, however, the same share — 27 percent — read 15 or more books.

In fact, when we exclude Americans who had not read a single book in that year, the average number of books read was 20, raised by the 8 percent who read 51 books or more. In other words, a sizable minority does not read, but the overall distribution is balanced somewhat by those who read a lot."

"Over the years, [Philip] Meyer has read dozens of books from beginning to end, regardless of whether he was forced to do so by a professor in school or whether a film version of the reading material already existed. According to girlfriend Jessica Kohler, he even uses a special cardboard marking device so that he can keep track of where he has stopped reading and later return to that exact same place...."

"a series of self-paced discovery entries for library staff interested in venturing out on the social web. Each post is meant as a short introduction to a different social website, tool, or concept...a gentle nudge for newcomers to social networking.”

"The products of SirsiDynix, Unicorn and Horizon, received low satisfaction scores from libraries responding to the survey. Unicorn, the company’s flagship ILS performed somewhat better than Horizon. 14% of libraries running Unicorn and about half of those with Horizon indicate interest in migrating to another system--not surprising considering SirsiDynix's position not to develop that system into the future. Horizon libraries scored high interest in open source ILS alternatives. The comments provided by libraries running Horizon voiced an extremely high level of frustration with SirsiDynix as a company and its decision to discontinue Horizon. Many indicated distrust toward the company. The comments from libraries running Unicorn, the system which SirsiDynix selected as the basis for its flagship Symphony ILS, also ran strongly negative—some because of issues with the software some because of concerns with the company."

Newsflash: Booksales are down because most books suck. Even ignoring the great philosopher Sturgeon's Law that "Ninety percent of everything is crap" - modern publishing is producing more books then ever, therefore they are producing more crap then ever. Even though it is now easier for everyone and their Aunt Helen to write a book and get it published, no one is taking into account whether it SHOULD be published, and the market is flooded. The market is so pumped full that right out of the box a book can be sold for 50% off the cover price in great honking warehouses. [why are books the only thing with prices printed on them?] and don't get me started on the secondary market, as soon as a book leaves the TRADE food chain its value drops like a bowling ball off a dorm roof. You can literally buy a modern first edition for less than an airport fiction paperback. WHY? because the market is flooded and we are up to our ass in books.

And they aren't very good ones either. Is it me? or does it seem that in the last 10 years every editor in America was fired? either that or they all just suck at their jobs. They certainly aren't correcting grammar or coherency. Hell, they aren't even checking to see if what is written in the book didn't come from someone ELSE'S book. These days if I find a mistake that could have been corrected by an editor, I fling the book across the room with great force.