This paper reviews the literature on the habits and preferences of American adults in four areas: reading, library use, television viewing, and adult learning. Within these areas, research results are reported for: (1) the demographic characteristics of readers and nonreaders, the reasons given for reading, time spent reading, the places where reading materials are acquired, the type of material read, and the amount of reading done; (2) the demographic characteristics of library users and nonusers, frequency of library use, the type of library materials borrowed, the type of library services used, and library user satisfaction; (3) the characteristics of television viewers, their reasons for watching, time spent watching, and the type of shows watched; and (4) the demographic characteristics of adult learners, their reasons for returning to school or participating in job-related training courses, the abilities and problems of adult learners, and the types of learning in which they are involved. The implications for public libraries of the research results reported in this literature are also briefly discussed. Books, journal articles, ERIC documents, and theses--mostly from 1970 to 1982--are included, although a few works done in 1949 and 1950 are covered for the sake of comparison. A 33-item bibliography concludes the paper. (ESR)