A new report from the United Kingdom argues that families from lower socio-economic groups are dissuaded from reading and buying books by the snobbish attitudes of those in "the book trade." Could it be that English teachers, with our tradition of dismissing certain kinds of books as being unworthy of our consideration, contribute to this problem?
Report Cites Book Trade's "Exclusionary" Tactics Towards 20m Readers
A report due out this week from
research conducted in the UK by HarperCollins, the Trade Publishers
Council and the National Year of Reading (NYR) says the book trade is
"too intimidating" towards the C2DE socio-economic group, characterized
as lower income, non-professional families. The report found that many
families in this group, numbering up to 20 million, found books to be
"alien and unattractive" while reading was considered "an anti-social
activity for people who don't know how to live."
NYR project director Honor Wilson-Fletcher said: "These are good solid families who don't have literacy problems but who just don't read. They are one step away from book-buying - they do consume lots of leisure products and may have 2-300 DVDs in the house. But intentionally or otherwise, a lot of people involved in the book world are conveying the impression that reading is associated with a particular area of society and lifestyle."
(From Publishers' Lunch)
NYR project director Honor Wilson-Fletcher said: "These are good solid families who don't have literacy problems but who just don't read. They are one step away from book-buying - they do consume lots of leisure products and may have 2-300 DVDs in the house. But intentionally or otherwise, a lot of people involved in the book world are conveying the impression that reading is associated with a particular area of society and lifestyle."
(From Publishers' Lunch)
