You know the difference.

But anyway, I said that since I can't say "we don't read anymore" hard stop. That's not true, at least not obviously. (Google it and you'll get lots of conflicting info, but the trend isn't nearly as sharp as you would expect if you spend all your time reading scare articles about millennials and ebooks.)

But a lot of the same articles you'll see -- here's one -- make the point that what we're reading matters way more than how much. Words on hubski, words on facebook, even words at The Atlantic, they don't help as much as Dostoevsky, Hemingway or Woolf. The argument further goes that young adult fiction really cratered a generation's reading ability, because it's so damn easy. It seems logical (as a parent, teacher, librarian or even as a teen who "likes to read") to think of young adult as the next step on the ladder in the hierarchy from children's literature to classics and nonfiction, but it's more like a broken rung.

Also, age is crucial. If fewer and fewer 15 year olds read -- well, I was proficient in the English language at 15, but I wasn't a great writer. I got better. If I had been stunted by a lack of desire to read, I would still be able to bang out corporate emails and bad forum posts, but I would not be able to sit down and write a short story or poem.