Reading Habits of a Global Students Community

by Jaganth G. & Thea Pan

Reading is an act of civilization; it’s one of the greatest acts of civilization because it takes the free raw material of the mind and builds castles of possibilities.

—Ben Okri

Reading is considered to be one of the finest acts of humans that help to shape ourselves to be better individuals. Reading is an act that enables us to connect with our past generations, learn their knowledge and wisdom, thereby enabling us to live a more meaningful life.

The current modern society is believed to have a number of literates larger than ever before: The average literacy rate of human between 15 and above is 86 percent. Though this average is not evenly spread across regions, overall the literacy rate across the world is said to be at its peak in the recent years.

We know that literacy rate increases most significantly through receiving education. Through learning how to read, we grow ourselves on the shoulders of past giants from all walks of life and gain deeper understandings of life, society, ourselves, and the future. If young students are able to develop strong reading habits and skills, they will continue to learn and develop their minds. On the contrary, if students fail to develop reading habits, they are less likely to reach higher growth by stagnating in prejudice and ignorance.  We thought it would be quite interesting to know: How many students inculcate reading as a habit within themselves? What kind of books does the present generation students read? What are the reasons students read? These are some of the questions that made us launch a survey to learn about the reading habits of students across the world.

The objective of this study was to find the reading habit of the student community across the globe  and to understand their preferences and the nature of reading.

Methodology

We developed a  brief questionnaire towards the objectives and circulated among our student community. The questionnaire was developed in an online questionnaire form, using Google forms and circulated through emails and social media. Students from various parts of the world have participated in the survey and given their responses.

Findings

We have formulated some of the interesting insights obtained from the survey below:

• Overall 76 students from around 12 countries participated in the survey.

• Students from 20 different universities across the globe have participated in the survey.

• Of the total participants, a majority of them belonged to the age group between 20-25(around 58 per cent).

• Female students took part in more number than the male students. Around 53 per cent of the participants were female while around 45 per cent of them were male.

Around 85 per cent of them responded that they have the habit of reading, while only a mere 2 per cent of them said that they do not have a reading habit.

Nature of books students prefer

It is observed that most of the students prefer to read both fiction and non-fiction. Around 65 of the students participated in the survey said that they prefer to read both.  Around 22 per cent of them responded that they prefer to read only non-fiction. Only around 9 per cent of the students said that they prefer to read only fiction.

• Genres like Literature, History, Philosophy, politics, Biographies, Poetry,  Self Help, Business were the most preferred genres to read by the students.

S.No	Genre	Percentage
1	Literature	66.7
2	History	58.7
3	Philosophy	49.3
4	Politics	37.3
5	Biographies	36
6	Poetry	33.3
7	Self_help	28
8	Religion and Spirituality	26.7

Reading Time

On an average most the students read between one to two hours daily.  Around 45 per cent of the students read between 1-2 hours daily where 40 per cent the student read up to one hour daily.

• With respect to the preferred time of reading: most of them (around 61 per cent) said they like to read during their spare time; while 27 per cent of them said they prefer evening time; and only 9 per cent of them prefer reading in the morning.

Most of the students responded that their purpose of reading is to improve their knowledge, while a significant number of students have also responded that they read for recreation, to change the world, or to feel better.

Influence  of Reading Habit

It is interesting to note that most of the students inculcate the habit of reading by themselves. Around 39 per cent of the students said that they developed the habit of reading by themselves, while 28 per cent of them said their parents, around 16 per cent through their teachers and only 10 per cent through their friends.

• It is interesting to note that more than teachers and friends, parents play an important role in affecting students’ reading habits.

The Habit of Reading Newspaper

With respect to the habit of reading the newspaper daily, almost an equal percentage of students who prefer and do not prefer to read the newspaper daily.  Around 37 per cent of the students responded that they read the newspaper daily, while around 36 per cent of them prefer not to read it daily, and around one-fourth of them read it sometimes.

• With respect to gender, only 30 per cent of female students read newspapers daily, while 37 per cent of them do not read the newspaper. On the other hand, around 44 per cent of male students responded that they read the newspaper daily, while around 32 per cent of them said they do not read the newspaper daily.
  

Reading Format

It is interesting to note that even in our digital media era, most of the students prefer to read hard copy books than E-books. More than three fourth of the students participated in the survey responded that they preferred to read in hard copy while only 17 per cent of them preferred to read E-books.

Favorite Books and Authors

We have selected a some of the books students listed as their favorite choices. Do you see your favorite book(s)here too?

Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people, citizens of distant epochs, who never knew one another.

– Carl Sagan

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Here you can see some of the students’ favorite authors to get inspired:

Alejandro Galeano
Amartya Sen
Andreas Caicedo
E.B. White
Gabriel Garcia Marques
Haruki Murakami
Jawaharlal Nehru
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Julia Butterfly Hill
Julio Cortezar
Kiran Desai
Leo Tolstoy
Lu Xun
Marina Abramovic
Mark Twain
Martha Nussbaum
Murray Bookchin
Perumal Murugan
Thich Nhat Hanh
Ursula K. LeGui
Virginia Woolf
Zikai Feng

Without words, without writing and without books there would be no history, there could be no concept of humanity.

– Hermann Hesse

This is our first Global Student Research Initiative report, we will continue to launch new research on topics (eg. climate change) that concern students from around the world and create new knowledge that illuminates the ideas and situations of the global community of critical students. If you are interested in joining our efforts, please get in touch with us (criticaledges@gmail.com)!

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About the Authors