A few random links, now that I’m firmly back in my ever-present chair-in-front-of-the-internet.
First, today, Amazon revealed digital lending on some of its titles. The terms are similar to those for nook books: 14 days, you can only lend once, and you can’t read the book while it’s out for borrow.
The ever-wise Paul Biba at Teleread notes that the process of selecting which books are eligible for borrowing purposes is rather cumbersome on the publisher end: they have to individually de-select the books they wish to be ineligible, which, judging from how much was available for lending when the nook debut, is passing few.
So let me ask you: if you had the ability, would you lend a digital book? Is 14 days enough, if the title is eligible? I wonder how many books have actually been borrowed digitally – and read in that 2-week time frame.
Sally sent me this link to a Time Magazine article about a study from Personality and Social Psychology Review that indicates college students have decreasing levels of empathy:
Turns out, modern students just don’t seem to care. The research shows that today’s college students are a shocking 75 percent less empathetic than the students of the ‘70s.
Why are the students of today less caring? Scientific American offers a few possibilities. One could be an increase in social isolation—compared to the ‘70s, Americans today are far more likely to live alone and less likely to join groups.
Sally found the follow section more interesting, however:
Another possibility is a decline in reading. Studies have shown that people who read fiction are typically more empathetic, yet the percentage of college students who read for pleasure is less than 50 percent—the lowest it’s been in ten years.
I have no idea how I would have made it through college without fiction reading – so the idea that college students don’t read for pleasure drops my jaw. But the possibility that fiction reading increases empathy doesn’t shock me at all. After all, we romance readers we feel things deeply, if you know what I mean (and I think you do).
Do you know a college student? Do they read a lot for pleasure or generally not so much?
I read quite a bit in college, even going so far as to order fiction using our college’s Interlibrary Loan (once a librarian told me they were trying to decide if the cover of a LK I’d ordered was Fabio or not!). I think if reading is important to someone, they will make time for it, just as others make time for things they love (video games/boyfriends/shopping/etc). I was also lucky to find friends at college with similar taste in books so we can swap recommendations!
I wanted to add that college libraries can be great places to find out of print or interesting books. I was SO excited to find some first edition Heyer’s in my university’s collection (and surprised to find many old category romances too!)
I didn’t do any pleasure reading in college. In undergraduate I was more focused on my friends, drinking, and smoking. However, I spent the rest of my time preparing for graduate school and making great grades. I barely had time to read fiction. It wasn’t until graduate school when I didn’t live in the dorms or a student house that I read novels to relax
I saw some statistics that 50% of all romance readers have a bachelor’s degree, which is about 20% higher than national statistics on higher education.
Also, about 15% of romance readers have a graduate degree, and the percentage of Americans with graduate degree is right under 10%.
While romance novels are often deprecated, the readers are more educated than the general population. While undergraduates read less for pleasure, I think post-college that they are more likely to read fiction.