WASHINGTON — Liberals read more books than conservatives. The head of the book publishing industry's trade group says she knows why _ and there's little flattering about conservative readers in her explanation.
"The Karl Roves of the world have built a generation that just wants a couple slogans: 'No, don't raise my taxes, no new taxes,'" Pat Schroeder, president of the American Association of Publishers, said in a recent interview. "It's pretty hard to write a book saying, 'No new taxes, no new taxes, no new taxes' on every page."
Schroeder, who as a Colorado Democrat was once one of Congress' most liberal House members, was responding to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll that found people who consider themselves liberals are more prodigious book readers than conservatives.
She said liberals tend to be policy wonks who "can't say anything in less than paragraphs. We really want the whole picture, want to peel the onion."
...The AP-Ipsos poll found 22 percent of liberals and moderates said they had not read a book within the past year, compared with 34 percent of conservatives.
Among those who had read at least one book, liberals typically read nine books in the year, with half reading more than that and half less. Conservatives typically read eight, moderates five.
By slightly wider margins, Democrats tended to read more books than Republicans and independents.
Read the rest here.
Liberals Read More than Conservatives
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Barbara Fitzpatrick
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The study - or at least the article - didn't break down reading between fiction/pleasure books and non-fiction/educational books. (Nor picture books v. "chapter" books as they are now calling them in elementary school.) Heaven only knows who I'm making up for, since I read on average a dozen "serious" books a year, and 3-4 fiction books a week. (That does include re-read favorites, but doesn't count picture books I read to my grandsons.)
Barbara Fitzpatrick