Interesting… of all the people I know who read books, about one half only reads them at the beach. The other half only reads them in bed before going to sleep.
Given that… if a text adventure cannot be used either at the beach or in bed (lying down), at first glance I’d say that’s the reason they are not popular. You don’t need to look for other reasons. I might be wrong.
Isn´t it also incredibly windy?
Maybe in italy more people have access to the beach?
Either way I´m a bit saddend by this whole discussion that seems to imply that these days products can only be popular if they´re easy to be casually consumed.
Well, yes, by now you might have guessed I live by the beach. 
you need to bring kids to the beach, and the parents get stuck there with nothing to do. It’s then that they read.
Sometimes - it varies. Brits are weather-toughened though, hurrrgh!
Because they are complete different mediums?
You have to interact with a text adventure - and you have to solve puzzles.
If you read a book, you can just enjoy the story. You don’t need to “think”.
So reading a book is relaxation, playing a text adventure is “work”.
At least I don’t want to solve puzzles after a long working day in my bed.
I don’t know… I tried last night in bed. A text adventure on the phone, instead of reading. it was relaxing, not different from reading. It felt totally like “reading”, not at all like “working”. I mean, ideas come naturally, that’s how the brain works. To our consciousness, ideas look like they “popup out of nowhere”… it’s not something you must consciously work to obtain.
The only real pain was typing on the phone. But point&click text adventures solve this.
Wow, what kind of job do you have where you spend a long working day in your bed?
(Just kidding!) 
What if I tell you, that my office is actually in my home. Near my bed. Extremely near my bed…
You´re making it sound like “office” was an euphemism for chamber pot.
Really? But then it wasn’t an infocom adventure? 
But seriously: Solving puzzles turns my brain on and keeps me awake, while books are relaxing to me. Beside that, the display of a phone has blue light, that keeps you awake too. So I for myself won’t solve adventure games in my bed (at night) - especially when they have difficult puzzles.
Ehm. Uhrm. I can’t tell you more…
That´s why we´re calling it “doing the business!” 
He´s a rock star obviously
Shhhhht. (You know too much. And you know what such people happens…)
They become subjects of Alfred Hitchcock movies…
No, it was the one about the pig 
Yeah, I wasn’t considering infocom adventures. these AFAIR were very frustrating, forcing you to do repetitive actions (spells, reagents). I can understand that these cannot be compared to books. Maybe we should distinguish between interactive fiction and text adventure.
In which way they differ from your point of view? IF are easier text adventures? IF has no “real” puzzles (= walking simulators in text form)?
IF: they do have puzzles, but they they seem very exploration based, which I found relaxing. you can just visit a lot of rooms before you even start solving puzzles. However, I need to play a bit more to be sure-- I don’t have much experience with IF.
Hm… I thought of IF as another term/synonym for text adventures. But consulting the corresponding Wikipedia article, it seems that today IF is used as a generic term (cite):
Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, is software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment.
I did have the impression that, in IF, puzzles are secondary, while story and exploration are primary. However, I am basing my impression on just Detectiveland (the point&click one), and the one with the pig.
What I know for sure is that I just bought 7 Daedalic games on sale and I don’t know if I’ll ever play them, cause IF is so much more immersive…