A National Endowment for the Arts report documents the decline of reading in America. “The NEA, like many other observers of trends, blames technology. In 1990 consumers spent 6 percent of their leisure spending on audio, video, computers and software. Now, according to the report, those items account for 24 percent of recreational spending. Book-buying hasn’t done that badly, standing at 5.7 percent in 1990 and 5.6 percent in 2002.”