“For every four Britons with their noses in a bestseller, there’s one adult in the UK who does not read books at all. Research by the Office for National Statistics, commissioned by the National Reading Campaign in 2001, found a quarter of adults had not read a book in the previous 12 months. The figure rose to almost half among males aged 16-24. This is despite soaring book sales – up 19% in the UK in the five years to 2004. This rejection of books is not connected to literacy – the number of adults with reading difficulties has decreased by two million in the past decade to about five million.”