Tell me, is this supposed to be good?

Today's New Yrk Times reports (with slight condensing):

"A National Endowment of the Arts report, “Reading on the Rise: A New Chapter in American Literacy,” being released Monday, finds that for the first time since 1982, when the bureau began collecting such data, the proportion of adults 18 and older who said they had read at least one novel, short story, poem or play in the previous 12 months has risen."

Seems good, right? It then goes on to say that 50.6% of respondents said that they had read at least one book, play or poem in the last year.

That means, folks, that 49.4% of Americans hadn't even read ONE book, play or poem in the last year. Half of American adults NEVER read any form of literature (it could have been print or on a computer). Not even one measly poem (what 5 minutes?????)! Too busy reading self-help books and how to get ahead at work. Know what? Literature is the best self-help stuff out there and, if you think through and apply what the author has tackled, can shoot you to the top of the heap.

I think I give up. I am speechless. Not wordless, speechless.