Yet another recent article on reading the manual, this time in Wired News.

Company executives and marketing consultants say over half the calls to U.S. tech support address issues that are already discussed in manuals provided with products. And even though they suspect that no one in the United States has ever read an entire product manual, companies continue to provide them because they are legally required to do so.

Simply providing one of course, doesn't guarantee that it's readable or that the information is organized in a way that makes it possible to find what you're looking for. On the other hand, some manuals are surprisingly good and still don't get used as frequently as they might.

In addition, a 'good' manual in the United States might not work at all in, say, Hungary where, according to the article, the assumption is that everything will break and users demand do-it-yourself fixit instructions.