A lot of Americans -- 96.2 million -- read at least one literary work in 2002.

		On the Internet Read more about the study, and download a copy of the report on the National Endowment for the Arts' Web site.

It's an impressive figure, until you learn the number's about the same as it was 20 years ago -- 95.6 million -- while the country has grown by more than 20 million people in the meantime.

The net result is that the reading of literature, from novels and short stories to poetry and published plays, is dropping in the United States, and that the decline has wide-ranging consequences, according to a survey released yesterday by the National Endowment for the Arts.

The drop is about 10 percent from 1982 to 2002 and it reaches across gender, age, race and ethnicity lines.

The biggest decline is among people 18 to 24 years old -- 28 percent.

The NEA report, "Reading at Risk," concluded that literature's drooping popularity will have an impact on cultural and civic activities because "literary reading strongly correlates to other forms of active civic participation."

Readers are more likely than nonreaders to be involved in activities such as volunteer and charity work, visiting museums and art galleries, and attending concerts, according to the study.

NEA Chairman Dana Gioia said the survey "constitutes a comprehensive factual basis for any informed discussion of current American reading habits."

"We want to be a part of this national conversation," said Gladys Maharam, deputy director of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.

"The library's been working with local organizations to do whatever we can to promote reading and literature."

She cited the library's long-running summer reading program for children that was kicked off June 13.

The Summer Reading Extravaganza drew more than 3,400 people, one of the largest crowds for a library event, she said.

Despite those kinds of programs, reading of both fiction and nonfiction is becoming less and less important in the lives of young adults.

Overall, book reading was down 7 percent from 1992 to 2002.

"Where are the readers going to come from in the next decade or so?" asked Cheryl Hurley, publisher of the Library of America.

"We [in publishing] all had a vague sense that there had been a decline, but when you see the numbers, it's really disconcerting."

The Library of America republishes the novels and poetry of important and classic writers.

"This report has found a time bomb, I think," she said. "We've been taking it for granted that people will read later as they get more time, but apparently that's not happening."

Signs that the 18-to-24 age group are poorly versed in literature are apparent on two local campuses.

Chuck Kinder at the University of Pittsburgh and Jim Daniels at Carnegie Mellon University, both of whom are writers and teachers of writers, say many undergraduates in their classes do very little outside reading.

"We did a survey in our writing courses and we were flabbergasted at how little the kids read," Kinder said.

"It got to the point that I felt I was sounding like I was from feudal times if I mentioned something from a book. I got more response by alluding to 'Seinfeld.' "

At his Carnegie Mellon writing workshops, Daniels said he was surprised to learn just how little his students read for pleasure.

"I came to notice that there's a reluctance by the students to do outside reading," he said.

"More interesting was the fact that reading literature isn't seen as a component of learning how to write."

Both teachers concluded that modern life offers attractive alternatives to a novel.

"Reading's an isolated, calm process," said Daniels. "That's the wonderful thing about it. It can be a kind of meditation when it works.

"But sometimes, the world's so busy that young people are afraid to be alone. It's not a familiar state to them."

"Kids are getting their stories elsewhere today," said Kinder. "Novels are not the dominant medium anymore."

Kristin Kovacic, who teaches writing at the Creative and Performing Arts High School and Chatham College, said her students "spend a lot of time reading, but the temptation is to be surfing on the Internet or sending e-mail."

For many people, "the reading muscle is atrophied because the head is doing something else," Kovacic said.

"My hunch is that people no longer have the habit of mind to be readers. Reading should be a passion. You can't force anyone to be passionate. You have to build that habit."

Richard Ford, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, "Independence Day" said the question now was "What are we going to do about it?"

"Americans seem to be more and more committed to the gathering of information and less and less comfortable with the imagination in general," he said.

"Fiction is about finding the possible and the hopeful in our lives, so in the long run, I don't think I'll be driven out of business," said Ford.

"Readers will never grow out of the need for the imagination."