Edgar Beach wrote: >Bernard Chasan at [log in to unmask] wrote: > >>Classical music is unpopular because it requires an attention span and a >>commitment. > >Reading a good book requires attention and commitment also. Yet Reading >still remains a popular human endeavor because there are still good books >being written and read today. Some may even attain classic status. Yet just how big is the reading public for good books, those which might attain classic staus? I remember that about ten years ago the novelist Phillip Roth estimated that there were about 60,000 readers in this country who regularly read serious fiction. I don't know how he got that estimate, but there it is.If true, it means that about 1 in 300 adults is so involved. The publishing of serious novels is not is not profitable and it is becoming harder for promising young writers to get published. I have little doubt that the poetry audience is even smaller. So yes- reading serious literature requires attention and commitment,and for that reason, is very much a minority pastime. Bernard Chasan