Who Needs a Television As Long as We Can Read?

Thinking back to the favorite pastimes of your childhood, how many of them do you still enjoy as much now as you did then? Not many, I’ll bet. The great exception is reading, which helps explain why we’ve yet to fulfill the dire pronouncements that America is a post-literate society. In a poll conducted for Ikea, adults were asked to name their favorite leisure activity, and reading won a clear plurality (24 percent). In fact, it pulled in more votes than the second- and third-place entries combined (outdoor activities like camping and fishing, 13 percent; sports, 10 percent).