Ebooks, Audiobooks Are Popular, But Print Books Remain King
According to the Pew Research Center, 65 percent of Americans have read a print book in the past year, while 25 percent have read an ebook and 20 percent have listened to an audiobook.

By Rob Marvin

We spend most of our time at PCMag talking about the endless wave of technological innovation changing society for better and for worse, but that doesn’t mean the old world just stops.

My favorite example of this is reading. While more and more Americans get their news from social media and do most of their reading on ebooks, tablets, and smartphones, the majority of adults still read old-fashioned print books.

According to a study from Pew Research Center, print books continue to be significantly more popular than ebooks or audiobooks. Around 72 percent of US adults told Pew they’ve read a book in some format in the past year, and 65 percent of those respondents said they read a print book. That’s compared to 63 percent in 2015, though the last two surveys show a drop from 71 percent in 2011. Only 25 percent of respondents said they read an ebook, which is down 2 percent from 2015.

The share of Americans who listen to audiobooks has also risen, from 14 percent in 2015 to 20 percent in 2019. For most respondents, though, it’s not one or the other; it’s a mix. While 37 percent of readers said they read only print, 28 percent read both print and ebooks or audiobooks, and only 7 percent read in digital formats. That said, about a quarter of respondents haven’t read a book in the past year at all.

Personally, I’ve tried ebooks and audiobooks. While I read most of my news via digital media outlets these days, when it comes to books, I’m still exclusively print. In a world where so much of our day is spent staring at one screen or another, one of my favorite feelings is putting my devices out of reach and picking up a paperback.
[]
['Technology', 'Books', 'Reading', 'Gadgets', 'eBooks']