I read an interesting article in The Huffington Post earlier today. It contained some shocking statistics about literacy in the US.
I traced the information back to a US company called Statistic Brain, which researches and publishes statistics on all sorts of interesting things.
I found myself digging deeper and deeper on their site, finding some staggering stats:
- 774 million people – the number of people around the world who can’t read
- 80% – the percentage of US families who did not buy a book this year
- 66% – the percentage of the world’s illiterate people who are female
But they don’t just provide frightening literacy stats. There are other strange and weird facts too. Did you know that seaweed can grow up to 30 cm per day? Or that, on average, 100 people choke to death on ballpoint pens every year? And that summer on Uranus lasts 21 years!
Interesting stuff. But the stats on literacy are disturbing.
Good Reading Magazine 
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I was thinking about this the other day. I’m working on an art zine about the meaning of reading and was wondering whether illiteracy was a thing of the past (doubted that would be the case). It’s an interesting experiment to walk into a shopping mall, or some other everyday environment and for a few minutes, just imagine that you are not capable of reading. The world must have a very different meaning.
Here’s some info about my project by the way. Would love for you or your readers to participate. http://anthonyquinnartist.com/reading-is/
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