Released: April 4, 2012 The rise of e-reading By Lee Rainie, Kathryn Zickuhr, Kristen Purcell, Mary Madden and Joanna Brenner. Summary of findings. One-fifth of American adults (21%) report that they have read an e-book in the past year, and this number increased following a gift-giving season that saw a spike in the ownership of both tablet ...