Visual Economics has an interesting, though slightly disturbing, pie chart that shows how the average American consumer spends his or her money. If there's a punchline there, it's that the average person spends 2.75 times more money on tobacco than books. I suppose we shouldn't be surprised. 7-11 never seems to keep copies of Blink on a rack above the counter. American's aren't bored though – don't worry. We spend almost 23 times more of our dollars on entertainment than books…and that entertainment budget doesn't even include the booze! Here is the breakdown of the leading macro-components of our annual budgets. (The actual chart provides more detail.)
34.1% Shelter
17.6% Transportation
12.4% Food
10.8% Insurance and Pensions
5.7% Health Care
5.4% Entertainment
3.8% Apparel and Services
3.7% Cash contributions
1.9% Education
1.6% Miscellaneous
1.2% Personal Care
0.9% Alcoholic Beverages
0.7% Tobacco
0.2% Reading
I'm surprised the gap between tobacco and reading isn't greater, actually. (And that "reading" category likely includes newspapers and magazines, too–so we don't even spend an average of $118/year per person on books. Hi People Magazine!)