The world’s evolving, but reading books remains important

Above : Book lover Fran Lebowitz is featured in the Netflix series “Pretend It’s a City.” (Photo: Netflix)

A poll conducted on MSN recently reported some results that I find disturbing. Not particularly surprising, I guess. But disturbing, nonetheless.

Some 437,363 people responded to the question “Do you regularly read books?” And of that number, only 42 percent answered “yes.”

Again, that number was 42 percent.

Even worse, another 38 percent answered “no.” Meanwhile, the remaining 20 percent answered “sometimes.”

Let’s be clear. This is hardly scientific. I have no idea what the so-called margin of error of such a poll would be, how honest people’s answers were or how many respondents were actually Russian bots.

But if the poll results are even close to being true, the indication is that a large percentage of the American public (at least those who have access to a computer) don’t read books. Not just sometimes but at all.

And that’s what I find disturbing. I know was born in another era, one in which owning a television was actually a novelty. As such, I’ve seen how life has changed over the decades, how drastically our very means of communication has evolved.

But as much as I love and use computers (I own three that work, plus an equal number of iPads and an iPhone), reading books – hardbound, paperback and even on my Kindle app – remains an important part of my life.

And it’s nice to know that I’m not alone. I’ve been watching the Netflix series “Pretend It’s a City,” in which Martin Scorsese shares an ongoing conversation (split into seven parts) with the author and irascible social commentator Fran Lebowitz . And she tells how she was shopping for (but couldn’t afford) a new New York City apartment large enough to store her 10,000 books.

I don’t have that many books. But I do have several hundred or so, filling six different bookcases in my office alone, another 15 boxes of which line one side wall of a back hallway. Despite what Marie Kondo might say, I can’t – I won’t – give them away.

Because I’m a proud member of that 42 percent mentioned in the MSN poll. Along with checking out YouTube videos, sharing my thoughts on Facebook and seeking out obscure information of Google, I make sure to read from a book every single night.

In fact, I think I’ll drive down to Auntie’s Bookstore today and buy something new. To paraphrase Tom Cruise’s character in “Top Gun” : I feel the need … to read.

Always have, and I hope I always will.