The Times’ Charles Blow has a nice column about reading books…which is apparently a fading pastime: Since 1978, the number of Americans who didn’t read a book in the past year has nearly tripled.

Among American adults, women were more likely to have read at least one book in the last 12 months than men. Blacks were more likely to have read a book than whites or Hispanics. People aged 18-29 were more likely to have read a book than those in any other age group. And there was little difference in readership among urban, suburban and rural population.

It’s not hard to understand why—the competition for our spare time has grown so fierce—but of course one wonders how this affects people’s ability to think and to learn.