Chances are you won’t even read this article

To some, the idea of curling up by the fire with a good book sounds like an ideal way to while away an evening or a rainy day. According to a 2014 study, however, about one-quarter of American adults would sooner throw a book – or themselves – in the flames than crack the cover.

The Pew Research Center study, “A Snapshot of Reading in America in 2013,” found that 24 percent of Americans ages 18 and older hadn’t read a single book in the previous 12 months. According to a Gallup Poll conducted in 2005, the percentage of non-readers in 2015 is 50 percent higher than a decade ago and has tripled since 1978.

So where have all the readers gone? A post on the subject to the Times Free Press Facebook page returned more than 80 responses, ranging from those who proudly touted their reading habits to book club expats who left either by choice or through circumstances beyond their control.

Meigs County resident Jessica Winslow says life has a way lately of getting between her and the novels she wishes she were reading.

“The only thing I read is texts and when I press the ‘info’ button on the remote,” the 31-year-old mother of three laments. “Watching TV is just more appealing at times. It’s harder to concentrate on reading with the kids around.”

Winslow says it’s not that she doesn’t enjoy reading; she loves being sucked into a story. Yet in spite of narrating dozens of children’s books to her kids in the last year, she’s not flipped a single page for personal pleasure. Even though she thinks reading is important, Winslow says she’s not surprised that she’s one of America’s many lapsed bookworms.

“Technology has made us lazy,” she says. “A lot of good books have become movies where you can get the same information in two hours [rather] than several weeks [it takes] to read the book.”

Read early, read often

To an extent, Chattanooga Public Library Director Corinne Hill says she understands Winslow’s sentiment.

According to Hill’s records, the library saw a 7 percent increase in circulation in fiscal year 2014-2015. Of the more than 925,000 items that were borrowed, however, only 70 percent were print books; the remainder were audio/video loans – physical audio books and DVDs – and digital-only content such as streaming audio or film. In the last year, the library’s digital-only category has grown by 48 percent, a pace HHill describes as “just ridiculous.”

“You can barely keep up with the demand,” she says. “Put that on a graph and it looks amazing.”

But having less than three-quarters of the library’s patrons reading bound books isn’t all that worrisome to Hill. She describes her own reading as “voracious” – “I’ll read the back of the cereal box,” she says – but she’s aware that everyone doesn’t share her passion.

“I mean, to each his own, right?” Hill says. “Is it unfortunate? Yeah, but again, I like to think that people are getting all this stuff in a different way.”

To measure the library’s success by print books alone is an outmoded way of thinking, she says. Instead, she prefers to think of the library as a purveyor of storytelling, a commodity which can be as easily delivered – and for some patrons, more conveniently – through an audiobook or film than a novel.

“They’re getting their information and their storytelling and their recreation in other delivery mechanisms. That’s all this is when you think about it,” Hill says. “We’re chopping the pie up is what we’re doing.

“I love that people are coming here and finding what they want, that they have a bunch of options with regards to delivery method. And I’ve never really gotten caught up in the whole, ‘Oh, it has to be print.’ I’ve never gone down that road.”

It’s not that reading isn’t critical, she adds, but trying to convert non-readers is the wrong approach. The library’s efforts are far more focused on introducing children to books as early as possible and stoking their interest in reading so it becomes a lifelong love.

Better never to lose them at all, she says.

“If it doesn’t happen when they’re young, it’s not going to happen. I’m not going to turn a 30-year-old into a reader,” Hill says. “[But] that preschool stuff is super, super important.

“To me, that’s the key. You have to get them when they’re young and super-curious and super-interested in everything. Then they learn how discovery happens through reading. But when we miss that? How do you get them back? I don’t know that you do.”

Tempted by technology?

Many people point an accusatory finger at technology and the proliferation of smart devices and streaming media as the reason some have turned their backs on the printed word. However, many self-described bookworms say the convenience and ready access to books on e-readers and tablets – including free access to digital libraries with millions of free public-domain titles – have dramatically increased the pace and volume of their reading.

When his wife gave him a Kindle e-reader, Chattanooga retiree John Odom says he went from reading four or five books a year to finishing one every week.

“I have always done a lot of reading, but carrying books was a pain, and I don’t usually read one straight through,” he says. “The Kindle now allows me to read in otherwise wasted moments while waiting. I love the feel, and even the smell, of paper and ink, but the Kindle is so convenient.”

In the 17 years since devices such as the SoftBook and Rocket eBook became the first mass-produced e-readers, the market for digitized novels has exploded in popularity. In June, the Association of American Publishers released an industry survey that estimated the worth of the e-book market at $3.4 billion – about 20 percent of the value of all book sales.

According to a 2014 study by Pew Research Center, 50 percent of American adults now own a tablet or dedicated e-reader – such as a Kindle Voyager or Nook GlowLight – and digital readership has increased by 64 percent since 2011, from 17 percent to 28 percent.

The Hollywood element

Whether the words are printed on paper or rendered in e-ink, however, many non-readers say they simply lack the time to finish a book, which is why they favor more concise forms of storytelling such as films or TV series.

Many non-readers cite lack of time as their reason for avoiding books. Here’s how long it would take the average reader to finish popular books compared to their film adaptations. (Note: Reading based on a pace of 300 words per minute.)

* “Harry Potter” series: Novels (1.1 million words, 60 hours 14 minutes); films (19 hours 59 minutes)

* “The Lord of the Rings” series: Novels (455,000 words, 25 hours 12 minutes); extended-edition film trilogy (11 hours, 54 minutes)

* “Gone With the Wind”: Novel (418,000 words, 23 hours 12 minutes); film (3 hours 58 minutes)

* “Twilight” series: Novels (400,000 words, 22 hours 12 minutes); films (10 hours 8 minutes)

* “Cold Mountain”: Novel (161,000 words, 8 hours 58 minutes); film (2 hours 34 minutes)

* “Gone Girl”: Novel (131,000 words, 7 hours 15 minutes); film (2 hours 29 minutes)

* “50 Shades of Grey”: Novel (105,000 words, 5 hours 50 minutes); film (2 hours 5 minutes)

* “To Kill a Mockingbird”: Novel (100,000 words, 5 hours 34 minutes); film (2 hours 9 minutes)

* “The Hobbit”: Novel (95,000 words, 5 hours 17 minutes); film trilogy (8 hours 32 minutes)

* “The Great Gatsby”: Novel (47,000 words, 2 hours 36 minutes); film (2 hours 13 minutes)

* “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe”: Novel (36,000 words, 2 hours 1 minute); film (2 hours 23 minutes)

“There’s not enough time in the day to sit and read a book,” says Soddy-Daisy resident Alison Brooksbank Patterson. “I do well reading my emails and texts.”

According to Forbes, the average adult reading speed is 300 words per minute. At that rate, “Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix” (the longest of J.K. Rowling’s wizarding tomes) takes more than 14 hours to finish. By comparison, the book’s film adaptation clocks in at a much more schedule-friendly 2 hours and 18 minutes.

“People are overworked and overscheduled and reading requires a lot more of the entertainment recipient than oh, say, watching TV or movies,” says Cherie Priest, the Chattanooga-based author of more than 15 novels, including the award-winning “Boneshaker.”

“You actually have to participate in a book – you can’t sit back and passively receive it,” she adds. “I think that, for some people, [reading] is a less-appealing entertainment option.”

For all that film adaptations based on books necessarily tend to abridge and condense the original plot, translating a story to film actually can improve the fortunes of its source material.

The success of “Harry Potter” on screen and in print went largely hand-in-hand during the 14-year span stretching from the publication of “The Sorcerer’s Stone” to the cinematic release of “The Deathly Hallows, Part 2.” In all, the eight “Harry Potter” films have grossed more than $7.7 billion at the box office, but the novels upon which they are based set similar high watermarks as history’s most successful book series with estimated sales of more than 450 million copies worldwide.

The success of other films based on novels, particularly those aimed at young adults, has helped to buoy a number of series, including Veronica Roth’s “Divergent” novels and and Stephanie Meyer’s “Twilight” tetralogy.

In September 2014, the Atlantic reported that sales of James Dashner’s young adult novel “The Maze Runner” skyrocketed in the months leading up to the release of its cinematic adaptation. According to the same report, Suzanne Collins’ grim future epic “The Hunger Games” trilogy saw a similar bump in sales after the film adaptation of the first book released in 2012.

This potential of book-to-movies to raise the profile of a written work and widen its potential audience certainly isn’t lost on authors. The film rights to Priest’s Nebula Award-winning 2009 steampunk-zombie epic “Boneshaker” were acquired in 2011 and an adaptation is listed as “in development” on the Internet Movie Database. Despite this windfall, Priest says relying on that recognition from Hollywood to win over non-readers is a literary longshot.

“All you can do is try to write good books and hope that non-readers will take a chance on them,” she says. “You can always cross your fingers that Hollywood will come calling, or a prestige cable company will option them for television but you may as well buy a lottery ticket.”

A feast for the mind

Even when they do pick up a book, Americans aren’t spending very much time between the pages.

In June 2014, a report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found that Americans spend on average, only 19 minutes a day reading (or about 5,700 words, given the average reading pace). At that rate, even George Orwell’s svelte “Animal Farm” (29,996 words) would take more than five days to finish.

According to the Labor report, younger readers devoted even less time to reading. Respondents ages 15 to 19 said they spent just 4 minutes a day reading, compared to 1 hour 2 minutes for those age 75 and older.

Despite its seeming laboriousness compared to more easily digestible entertainment media, many bibliophiles say the longer the book – and the more time it takes to finish – the better.

Felicia Lezcano says she’s never been an especially fast reader. Even before the birth of her two children, the Sale Creek resident says she trailed far behind friends who finished a book a month.

As they have grown older, caring for her children has made reading an all-too-rare escape, but Lezcano says she’s still managed to finish two books in the last year. According to the Pew study, the typical American reader finished five books in that time.

What she loves about reading, however, is that those infrequent opportunities to indulge herself offer a chance to deep-dive into another world. In a sense, it’s an almost visual experience.

“It just becomes so real for me, almost like I was watching a movie,” she says. “I wish I could read more because it relaxes me. It’s peaceful. I get to experience another world when I read.”

A deep-seated love of literary escapism is at the core of many avid readers’ love of the written word, and many express disappointment that one-quarter of their peers don’t share – or can’t indulge – that desire.

“Books are magic. Books are a free ride to anywhere in the world,” says Juanita Egner of Englewood, Tenn. “I cannot imagine not reading.”

Contact Casey Phillips at cphillips@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6205. Follow him on Twitter at @PhillipsCTFP.