KANSAS CITY.COM

Read a good book lately? Tell us about it

Hey, book lovers: It's up to us to get people reading again!

Last week a survey by the National Endowment for the Arts reported that "literary reading" has suffered a dramatic decline. Between 1982 and 2002, the percentage of adults reading literature - novels, short stories, poetry and plays - dropped from about 57 percent to 47 percent. Men and women, young and old, all ethnicities - just about every demographic group is reading less literature.

But maybe we newspaper readers can do something about that, at least here in Kansas City. Just e-mail us with the title and author of a good book you've read this year. Then, in a sentence or two, tell us what the book's about and why you liked it.

Send e-mail to tengle@kcstar.com. Please put "good book" in the subject line. Deadline: 5 p.m. Monday, July 19.

Please keep your recommendation to one good book (fiction or nonfiction, new or old, doesn't matter) and be brief in your comments.

We'll make a master list of all these great reads and share them with you soon online and in The Star's FYI section.

(For more on the NEA report, "Reading at Risk," go to www.arts.gov/news/news04/ReadingatRisk.html.)




Kansas City Star | 07/14/2004 | Read a good book lately? Tell us about it