Yes, about the relative importance of reading is of course quite a subjective observations. I am not entirely sure how to measure this.

It is just something both me and my brother noticed from early on when traveling together in the US, visiting relatives etc.

I also thought I saw it in the educational system when studying in the US. The US tends to focus a lot on multiple-choice questions. I had a lot of those in every possible context.

In Norway it is the complete opposite. Multiple-choice is almost non-existent. Tests are generally far more writing focused. In nearly any subject you are expected to formulate longer essay like responses. I saw a lot less of that in the US while living there.

I also noticed with families I stayed with the profound difference in the role TV played. Like TV is far more central to American culture than Nordic culture. So many families had TVs in numerous rooms. I remember my American room mate when I visisted his house. They had more than 6 TVs. To have more than TV in Norway is quite rare. Nobody has TV in their kitchen for instance.

You also see it at American hotels, bars and restaurants. TVs are everywhere. I have never been to a hotel in Norway with a TV on for when you eat breakfast. The tradition here is to read a newspaper for breakfast. Not to watch TV.

There is also a question of the prevalence of book stores, magazine shops and the status of written media in regular stores. As far as I remember from shopping at Wall-Mart and Target you don't see reading material as prominantly displayed or in as central location as I am used to at home when shopping.

You take your kids with you shopping and at the check out they go look at magazines and comics they want. I didn't notice the same dynamic in the US.

None of this stops individual families from being reading oriented in the US. But to me this is a bit like junk food chains. There are lots of really health concsious people in the US, but if you look at society at large there is a lot of push towards junk food.