In the modern world, a book as a paper carrier of information can no longer be considered a priority and the only source of knowledge. For the youth of the age of electronic technology and the development of perception of information through all the senses, an audiobook, a film adaptation or a play occupy approximately an equal position.
And yet it's nice to know that the value of reading is not lost and Russia remains a reading country. Although we are not in the first place, various studies and polls are encouraging with optimistic ratings.
Rating rated strife
As the well-known proverb says, how many tastes - so many opinions. What teenagers read, adults will not read, and vice versa. In relation to research and top rankings, this principle reflects the variety of options for setting primary goals. There is a rating of the most reading countries, which takes the number of hours,spent by residents on reading books in a certain period of time. And another survey will make such a list based on such a criterion as the number of books that have been read in the last month or are being read at the moment. Book publishers will offer a sales rating, and providers will offer the number of content downloads. The aesthetes will try to identify the respondents' favorite books.
The most popular questionnaire
Today, the GfK International Market Research Institute is considered the largest public opinion research platform in the world. An online survey conducted by this company in February 2017 showed that Russia confidently entered the top three in terms of the amount of time spent on reading.
The most reading country in the world, according to this survey, is China. The study involved 17 countries of the world and a dozen leaders whose citizens read every day or at least once a week (such was the control question). The ranking looks like this:
- China (70%);
- Russia (59%);
- Spain (57%);
- Italy (56%) and UK (56%);
- USA (55%);
- Argentina and Brazil(53%);
- Mexico (52%);
- Canada (51%).
South Korea and Belgium had the smallest number of respondents who answered yes to the security question, at 37% each.
Global survey trends
Poll showed gender equality. This means that both women (32%) and men (27%) read books every day or almost every day. The rich read more (35%) thanpoor (24%).
On average, worldwide, the number of people who read books at least once a week is 50.7%. However, it should be noted that 22,000 respondents from 17 countries took part in the survey. This is not the largest sample for statistical objectivity.
Book Lovers by World Culture Score Index (2016)
This international ranking is based on the number of hours per week spent by residents reading books:
- According to this study, the most reading country in the world is in Asia, and that is India, where the average Indian spends 10 hours and 22 minutes reading. This country reads both Indian and English equally.
- The second position was taken by the Thais (9 hours 24 minutes). Many languages are also read in Thailand, with the traditional Thai poet Naowat Phongpeiboon being among the most popular authors.
- In third place is China with 8 hours of reading per week. The most favorite books here are historical novels and books on the history of the republic. A very popular biography of Steve Jobs.
- Russia is in 7th place (7 hours and 6 minutes) after the Philippines, Egypt and the Czech Republic. What do they read in Russia? Our compatriots prefer Turgenev, Gogol, Akunin, Swift and Dumas, and in approximately equal proportions.
- Sweden and France tied for 8th and 9th with their reading time of 6 hours 54 minutes.
- A closes the list of the most reading countries in the world Hungary, where residents read 6hours 48 minutes a week.
Interestingly, Russians read 2 hours more than Americans. This is quite an interesting poll, isn't it?
PayPal platform survey
Survey in ten countries, conducted jointly by the PayPal platform and the SuperData agency, focused on the amount of content downloaded. Russia, Italy, Germany, Spain, Poland, USA, Japan and other countries participated in the study.
The data showed that the most reading country in the world is Russia. 33% of survey participants in our country read e-books every day, another 30% read 4 to 6 days a week. The cheapness of an e-book is the top priority for 61% of Russians. The rest of the priorities indicated the availability of rare books. The most favorite genres were science fiction, thrillers and mysticism. More often books are read from smartphones (54%), less often from laptops and tablets. 35% of readers use special e-readers.
Interesting fact: Russians listen to classical music more often than residents of other countries participating in the survey. Classical music was listed as a priority by 46% of our fellow citizens.
Booksellers' view
Publishers and book distribution corporations have their own way of looking at things. The Eksmo-AST publishing group and the Bookvoed book chain provide other data. According to their surveys, Russians spend an average of 9 minutes reading a day, they spend one hour on the Web and watch TV for about two hours.
Book publishers believe thatthe real state of the reading nation must be assessed by the volume of sales in the book market. The numbers say rather the opposite. Thus, in 2016, the book trade turnover amounted to 71 billion rubles, which is 12% less than in 2011.
But it is worth noting the growth in sales of electronic literary content: over the same period, the sales of electronic books increased by 3 billion rubles. And this segment of the book market occupies only four percent of the entire book trade. Legally buy electronic content only one in twenty consumers. And this problem also worries its owners.
Polls are not reliable. What then?
So, surveys are not reliable enough due to their limited sample and the specifics of control questions. Sometimes changing one word in a question can give completely incomparable results. And here anthropology with its scientific tools can come to the rescue. Under the leadership of the famous Russian scientist Mikhail Alekseevsky, the Center for Urban Anthropology carried out several large-scale studies in the area of interest to us. Very interesting trends emerged in the quality and quantity of Russian readers.
It turned out that reading for our fellow citizens is endowed with symbolism and sacredness. The persistent stereotype that books should not be destroyed pushes citizens to such tricks as storing them in garages and attics. And bookcrossing, a form of book exchange, is taking root in Russia slowly. most valuableboth those who read a lot and those who do not read at all consider the classics to be literature. The stereotype “classics is our everything” is reliably transmitted from generation to generation of Russians.
For the soul, our compatriots read fantasy, detective stories and other genres. But the Russians do not consider this literature valuable. It turned out that the main factor influencing the propensity to read in general is family traditions. What adults read is more likely to be read by children.
Family Institute and Broadcasting the Value of Reading
The family continues to fulfill the function of instilling the value of reading. But this is done purely for utilitarian reasons. Reading is necessary, because this way you will write correctly. You need to read a lot in order to finish school well and enter a good university.
A separate phenomenon is the social transmission of family preferences. The reading generation of the intelligentsia of the post-Soviet space influences the perception of young people. According to some polls, Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita ranks first in terms of the popularity of authors and works of classical literature that teenagers read. Behind him, young people celebrate the novels of the classics of foreign literature - Salinger, Remarque and Saint-Exupery. The Strugatsky brothers and Ilf and Petrov were in the top twenty of those who read. They entered the lives of young people not from teachers in the school system, but through family traditions.
Russians remain a reading nation, retaining the title of "The most reading country in the world" in ratings and opinion polls. The legacy of a generation whose childhoodpassed behind the ideological fence, which grew up with the heroes of Dumas and Cervantes, Pushkin and Dostoevsky, continues to shape the worldview of progressive youth. Namely, it is not her that Russia pins hopes on as a new bearer of literary Russian-speaking and patriotic consciousness.
