Topic: People's Reading Habits in the US

"A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic," Carl Sagan observed, "the catalyst is the reader's imagination." In addition, Steven Roger Fischer wrote in books that "What music is to the spirit, reading is to the mind. Reading challenges, empowers, bewitches, enriches."

Reading books benefits both people's physical and mental health and those benefits can last a lifetime. For kids, reading can strengthen their brain, build their vocabulary and increase their ability to empathize. For students and adults who are busy in studying and working, reading can reduce their stress, prepare them for a good night's rest and help alleviate depression symptoms. For elder people, reading can help prevent age-related cognitive decline and may even help them live longer.

Before people had books, they had stories. Primitive men recorded their stories through cave drawings or stone carvings. Later, Greeks and Romans adopted parchment such as calf skin or deer skin. In 1455, Johannes Gutenburg built the world's first printing press and printed the first book Gutenburg Bible. In 1832, the first book covers appeared. Also in the 19th century, hardback books started to be printed.

Reading does a lot of benefits to our lives and society. However, in current fast-paced times, less and less people do reading everyday. Aiming at cultivating the "nationwide reading", people's reading habits need to be explored. In this project, people's reading preference for category, people's reading time and people's expenditure on reading will be found out.

The concept of an electronic book was first devised in 1930, around the same time that paperback books first appeared on the shelves. In 1949, a Spanish school teacher, Angela Ruiz Robles devised the first prototype eReader device since it would be far easier to carry for school children, than a number of different textbooks. Up until now, thanks to the invention of Internet and the quick development of technology, people can read e-books on Kindle, iPad, laptop or cellphone.

Undeniably, e-books are convenient to carry and store. They allow users to contain many books in a smaller space, which makes traveling with reading material much easier. Besides, the built-in light source in many eReader devices makes reading in the dark much easier. However, many people are not accustomed to reading e-books. Some people prefer the tactile feel of paper books, others are fearful that their privacy may potentially be compromised. In addition, long-time exposure to electronic screens makes eyes tired. Paper books and e-books both have their own benefits and drawbacks, so in this project, people's favor between different ages and education levels with years will be explored.

10 questions to be answered:

(1) What is people's favor on e-books in different age groups?

(2) Will the price of a book affect its rating on Amazon?

(3) Are people in different age groups have the same average reading time?

(4) Does people's expenditure spent on reading change significantly over years?

(5) What is the distribution of e-book readers among different education levels in the US?

(6) Is there any relationship between rating and book category on Amazon?

(7) Will the number of reviews of a book affect its rating on Amazon?

(8) Which book formats do US consumers prefer more?

(9) What is people's preference for book categories in the US?

(10) Is there any relationship between rating and book format on Amazon?