New Research Reveals Popularity of Reading
Ten months after the launch of the National Year of Reading, new research by Nestlé reveals that 95% of British people think reading is an important and positive part of their lives. Two-thirds describe it as relaxing (65%) and enjoyable (65%), and three in five as informative.
The survey, conducted by MORI as part of Nestlé Family Monitor, was carried out to find out more about people's reading habits during the National Year of Reading. The research also shows that the average British person has 187 books in their home, with 11% claiming to own over 500 books.
Liz Attenborough, Project Director for the National Year of Reading, said:
There has been a tremendous amount of activity in support of the Year and it is very encouraging to see the positive results in this survey with so many people seeing reading as an important part of their lives. It's even more heartening to see that the vast majority of people really enjoy reading.
July is the National Year of Reading's "Read All About It" month when the focus is on newspaper and magazine reading. And the research shows that the most popular type of daily reading is for information and news. The research reveals that newspapers are by far the most frequently read publications. Nearly two-thirds of the respondents read a newspaper every day (92% at least once a month), compared with 5% who surf the Internet every day (22% at least once a month). Interestingly, people read Teletext more on a daily basis than fiction books: 25% read Teletext every day, compared to 12% who read fiction.
However, once a month, fiction and non-fiction are more popular than Teletext: 55% read Teletext, whilst 63% read non-fiction and 54% read fiction. Overall, biographies and autobiographies are the most popular types of books (18%), closely followed by thrillers (14%), humour (14%) and detective novels (13%). However, sports books are the favourite type for men (22%) while 17% of women like to delve into a romantic novel.
People's literary tastes, however, remain diverse with a range of titles and authors nominated as favourites. Catherine Cookson emerges as the Briton's most popular author whilst the Bible is the favourite book closely followed by Lord of the Rings and Pride and Prejudice.
The American classics fare less well than British classics - 18% have read the "Grapes of Wrath" and "The Great Gatsby", and just one in ten "Catcher in the Rye" compared with just over a third reading "Pride and Prejudice" and 25% "1984".
The results showed that the living room is the favourite place for people to read (79%). Two-thirds read in bed but this tends to be preferred by women. Other popular options include reading in front of the television (34%) or whilst listening to music (23%).
Said Liz Attenborough:
It is clear that even though many people have very busy lives, they still make time to read in a range of locations.
Technical details
MORI interviewed, face-to-face, a nationally representative quota sample of 525 adults between March 17 and April 13 1999.
