i’m 26. i never attended university. depending on how you measure it i never completed highschool.

i own more books than, from memory, my father has bought in his Life, even after getting rid of half my collection at one point ( it amounted to about 1/4th or less of what i currently have and was mostly old children’s books).

my mother’s collection is also noticeably smaller than my own.

I’ll grant that slightly over half of my collection is actually manga volumes rather than novels, now, but a substantial chunk of the remainder is non-fiction on various subjects. (linguistics mostly, but also economics, history, religion, warfare, and a number of other things, if not many on each).

i used to read a LOT of library books, as well. i’d frequently borrow the maximum allowed, or almost, and, allowing that in any given set of 20 2-5 would be comics of one sort or another and another 2-3 i’d end up deciding were’t quite as interesting as they first looked, i’d get the lot read in a couple of weeks, take ’em back as soon as possible, and borrow new ones. it got to the point where the main thing holding me back was the fact that the city-wide library network was Running Out of books that actually interested me, fiction wise. (i probably read most of the sci-fi and All the alternate history that was to be had, for one thing). these days, that library habit has been replaced with a mix of buying my own books and reading fanfiction online.

I don’t think the text book explanation really covers it.

the ease of access to communities discussing subjects of interest so that people can point out books you might actually Want to read probably contributes a lot. as does the ability to buy from online shops which are far less limited in their selections than the traditional book-shop.

i’ve long since stopped watching broad-cast television*, mind you. that reading, in addition to computer and console games, dvds – mostly series rather than movies – various board and card games with friends and family, wargaming… they’re all a Lot more interesting.

*(‘cord cutting’ is a lot less significant here… we never had cable companies. cable TV at ALL is a New thing with the fiber-optics being installed for better ‘net access, and even then it’s basically just the terrestrial broadcast and satellite channels with better reception and, in the latter case, a lower price due to the bundle deal. but NZ’s telecommunications situation’s always been a bit odd.)