RAPID CITY, S.D. – The Black Hills Writers Group did a survey of local book readers at the Black Hills Farmers Market community booth in August.

The Black Hills residents surveyed there are active book readers of many genre, the group’s results show. Reader preferences included 26 genres with nearly half the respondents (45 percent) reporting they read six or more books in the last year. Three-fourths (76 percent) read novels. Poetry and short stories were preferred by 14 percent of readers.

Fifty-one percent reported reading 13 genres of nonfiction followed by fantasy, romance, and mysteries and two-thirds of adult readers spend one to two hours per day reading books.

Nationally, a Pew Research Center study conducted in October 2025 showed that 75 percent of adults said they had read all, or part, of a book in the past 12 months. While e-books and audio books have gained in popularity, print still rules as the book format used by the majority of Americans.

So how many books do Americans read? According to the Pew study, 38 percent of adults say they had read one to five books in the past year;13 percent read six to 10; 10 percent read 11 to 20; and, 14 percent read more than 20 books in the past year.

The Black Hills Writers Group was founded in 1952 and holds by-monthly meetings and workshops from 7 to 9 p.m. on the third Tuesday of January, March, May, July, September, and November. The group meets in South Dakota School of Mines and Technology Classroom Building, room 329. All Black Hills area writers, regardless of experience, are invited to attend.