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If our society ever needed a reading renaissance£¨¸´ÐË£©, it’s now. The National Endowment for the Arts released “Reading at Risk” last year, a study showing that adult reading47    have dropped 10 percentage points in the past decade, with the steepest drop among those 18 to 24. “Only one half of young people read a book of any kind in 2002. We set the bar almost on the ground. If you read one short story in a teen—ager magazine, that would have48     ,” laments a director of research and analysis. He49     the loss of readers to the booming world of technology, which attracts would—be leisure readers to E—mail, IM chats, and video games and leaves them with no time to cope with a novel.

“These new forms of media undoubtedly have some benefits,” says Steven Johnson, author of Everything Bad Is Good for You.Video games

50     problem—solving skills; TV shows promote mental gymnastics by

51      viewers to follow complex story lines. But books offer experience that can’t be gained from these other sources, from52     vocabulary to stretching the imagination. “If they’re not reading at all,” says Johnson, “that’s a huge problem.”

In fact, fewer kids are reading for pleasure. According to data53      last week from the National Center for Educational Statistic’s long—term trend assessment, the number of 17—year—olds who reported never or hardly ever reading for fun

54       from 9 percent in 1984 to 19 percent in 2004. At the same time, the

55       of 17—year—