Study Shows Slovene Reading Habits Unchanged Since 1973

By , 21 Nov 2019, 17:17 PM Lifestyle
One of the door handles of the National University Library, Ljubljana One of the door handles of the National University Library, Ljubljana Pexels, Andrew Moore, CC BY-SA 2.0

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STA, 21 November 2019 - Reading habits in Slovenia have practically not changed since 1973, when the first study into reading was carried out, a publishing industry expert has told the STA, presenting this year's research into reading habits and book purchases in the country.

Miha Kovač, long-serving head of the Publishers' Academy segment at the annual Slovenian Book Fair, says the study, carried out this summer and published in the book headlined The Book and Readers VI, shows three interesting trends.

"The number of non-readers is practically the same as in 1973, meaning that reading habits have practically not changed in more than 40 years."

The number of readers rose by a few percent when Slovenia was amid efforts to gain independence, but then fell again, he says.

Then, compared to 2014, the number of regular readers - those who read more than 10 books a year - dropped by five points to 13% in 2018, three times less than in Norway.

In the same period, the number of those who read weekly dropped from 44% to 38%, with the number of those who read a few times a month or even less rising from 25% to 30%.

"All this shows that reading is not very high on the agenda of our country," Kovač comments on the main trends from the study, which was based on a survey of over 1,000 people aged 18 to 75.

Another interesting trend is that the number of young people reading in English is rising, with as many as 86% of the younger generation preferring to read in English.

While he welcomes the trend from the aspect of bilinguality and cognitive skills, Kovač says it can become a problem if English starts to undermine the mother tongue.

He also says a trend that Slovenian readers buy world best-sellers in English online instead of waiting for the Slovenian translation has gained traction over the past decade.

"Earlier, a Slovenian publisher could publish a translation with a year-long delay, but this did not reflect in the sales.

"Some readers have apparently become so much accustomed to buying and reading in English that it actually presents competition to books published in Slovenian."

The study compares Slovenia with Norway. Kovač says this is because both started researching reading habits almost simultaneously and because Norway fares much better than Slovenia in this respect.

"A Norwegian buys an average ten books a year as opposed to two bought by a Slovenian, which however means that at least theoretically the Slovenian market can still grow."

The number of readers in Norway has increased by 20 percentage points to around 90% since 1979. "Practically everyone is reading there. Based on this, I dare say we have wasted over 40 years of culture and education policies."

Asked what Slovenians could learn from Norwegians, Kovač says that at least 80% of Norwegian parents read to their children as opposed to only 30% in Slovenia, while there are also differences in the educational systems, with the teacher profession being much more prestigious there than in Slovenia.

"So I think we should launch a thorough debate on how to make reading a family value and what to do at school to better develop reading habits," he says.

He admits this is a very long process, regretting that such long-term thinking is not exactly an asset of Slovenian politicians or other decision-makers.

A third set of changes would have to be taken to encourage the publishing industry, he believe.

"But even this will be of little help if reading does not become part of the personal identity of the majority of people."

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