Not withstanding the proliferation of movies, television channels, video games, smart phones and iPads, Californians still read a lot of books, a new University of Southern California Dornsife/ Los Angeles Times poll has found.

The poll discovered that two-thirds of Californians say they like reading “a lot” and a fourth read at least one book a week — including the electronic versions. Nearly a fifth of those surveyed said they owned an iPad, Kindle or other electronic reading device.

The poll included reading in its array of mostly political questions because the USC campus was to play host this weekend to the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, which is expected to draw 150,000 book lovers.

It found that 61 percent of those surveyed spend at least three hours a week reading books, including 31 percent who spend at least seven hours and 17 percent who devote more than 10 hours a week to reading. Eighty percent said they have read at least one book in the past month and 40 percent at least three books in the last month.

“These results reinforce quantitatively what we experience anecdotally: that people continue eagerly turning to books, in all their forms, for wisdom, entertainment, and exploration,” said Catherine Quinlan, dean of USC’s libraries.

The poll found that more Californians said they buy books in brick-and-mortar bookstores than online, but the single most popular source of books is the library. More than a quarter of respondents said they get the majority of their books from local libraries.

Categories: California by the Numbers

Posted by Dan Walters on April 29

Submitted by Linda Wilson, Monterey Park