Reading books in Poland
Every
now and then I hear about how terrible the situation of reading in
our country is and it always surprises me because books are a very
common sight for me, I own a lot of them personally and try to read
quite regularly. Whenever I travel somewhere I see people reading
something. On the
subway, on buses and trains I see
them sitting quietly and holding books, both traditional paper-cover
books and ebooks. So what's the deal?
National
Library made a study about reading in Poland in 2014 and it turns out
that last year 41,7% of people surveyed read at least one book, which
means the rest haven't read any at all. Students are the ones who
read the most, which is quite understandable because they are often
required to read certain material. The second place was taken by
people living in large cities. Residents of rural areas are reported
to have read the least.
There
are a few campaigns that try to deal with this problem, including
well known Cała Polska czyta dzieciom
which encourages parents to read books to children. There's
also Nie czytasz, nie pójdę z Tobą do łóżka.
Some
time ago I stumbled upon a Facebook event called I'll
read 52 books in 2015
(https://www.facebook.com/events/315561018642822)
and decided to take part. 52 books per
year means one book per week. So far I'm doing fine with 12 books
read. I might be a bit behind the schedule, but I'm very certain that
I'm going to achieve 52 by the end of the year. Besides, it's not
about the numbers but your personal gain from reading, am I right?
I'm not
sure what to think about this whole situation. In my opinion it is
slightly exaggerated. Perhaps to provoke people into reading more
now, before it will get much worse. To be honest, the purpose of this
presentation is to hear your opinion about this issue.
Sources:
Comments
But at the same time I think that we can't make our opinion after impression made in big cities, especially Warsaw. The problem starts "just around the corner" i mean about fifty kilometers from every bigger city.
Its sad to admit it but it also regards to many other field such as cultural, moral and ideological evolution.
Now I have less time for reading, but I try to keep a good pace. This year I set my goal to 50 books and read 17 of them by now. By the way, if anyone wants to keep track of what they read, I strongly recommend a site called goodreads - it's something like filmweb, but with books; you can rate books you've read, see recommendations for more, set your goal for the following year, etc.
Nonetheless, I wouldn't say that the number of books you've read says anything about you. Some time ago I used to think that only dumb people don't read, and intelligent ones read as much as possible. Now I would say that it's more about what you read, not how much. Reading 50 cheap harlequinns doesn't make you smarter. That's why I try to read books not only for pleasure, but also for knowledge - for every few fantasy books I read a scientific one :)
Last year I probably read 1 book. This year also 1 (for studying purposes, of course ;) ) But it's incomparable to the amount of other online artices and videos that I've watched.
I don't feel ashamed because I don't read a lot. When I was younger and the internet was not so developed (there were not so many good, quality information sources) I was reading much more. I've read the Harry Potter series, the Lord of the Rings and other popular titles.
But since I don't have summer vacations, and I have a lot of to do at work and for my studies I simply don't have time for it. I love to read books "at once" (?) - I mean spend 3 days in a row and reading continuously :D When I divide it into parts, book is not that good anymore – I need time to "get back into it", to recall some of the facts that I have read weeks ago, and simply - I cannot enjoy the book that much anymore. That's why reading in a bus/subway is not quite good option to me. In this case I prefer to read shorter articles, and this is still "reading". Sometimes I wonder, if number of books is determinant of how much we read. Because many of us read magazines, articles in internet and a lot of other stuff :)
I have seen that facebook challenge and for me it is impossible to do, really. To read 52 books I should spend almost whole my free time on reading. And books are not equal - some of them have 100 pages, others have 1000, some are with illustration (especially books for graphic designers) and you cannot compare it or count it by piece. Some books you can read very fast, but sometimes, when you learn you need more time for better understanding. I think that if I took a place in this challenge I would only pick short books to accomplish it :P And that wouldn't be good for me, because it won't be a pleasure anymore but competition :)
They say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, and while it's a metaphor you could take it literally here. I have a friend who buys books just because of beautiful covers. She reads them too, but the primary reason is still the design.
I understad you completely, I can't divide the book or, what's worse, interrupt the reading with another book. I did it recently and it wasn't a good idea.
I noticed that year by year I read more professional books than literature, I don't think it is bad, so it's okay for me. But I don't consider all these articles that I read every day, it is not a book, but it's still information.
So I don't aspire to read certain quantity of books every year or month, at least now.
Besides - who cares if people read or dont? If they dont like to read - we shouldnt enourage them to do so.. Everyone does what he likes to.
I think that such promo actions are necessary.
I like to read books recommended by some famous people, like books recommended by Elon Musk and Warren Buffet ("Intelligent Investor").
For me it doesn't matter if the book is a short novel or a long and "borring" IT book. I just love to read:)
I also heard about this 52 books in 2015 challenge, but unfortunately I simply do not have the time to read that often. I'm trying my best though and I'm hoping that the statistics will change soon.
I really like to read books but now I don't have too much free time on reading. One year ago, I read a lot because everyday I spent about two hours in the public transport and read books. Currently I commute to work and school by car so now I read less books :(
And contrary to what you've described I do not see that many people reading books. I also do not know that many people who read books!
A perfect example is my cousin who is 14 years old and from what I've gathered not he nor any of his friends are reading anything outside of the obligatory books from the school's curriculum.
I think that books should be advertised more to people because there are many great works out there!
Personally, I think that books should get people more excited, maybe by making trailers? Some comic books started to do that, where they put a trailer on YouTube with voiceovers and everything!
I think that would be a step in the right direction, books need some more attention and quality advertisement so that people would get more interested in reading them.
I don't read. I silmply don't like it, and I used to try making a good habit of reading books. I have failed and I don't try to anymore. There are always better things to do for me. I need activity - reading book and sitting or lying makes me sleepy in very short period of time. I don't feel like I am worse, I know few people who don't read and they are really intelligent and smart. The others just read, I respect it. I support reading, I would like my chldren to read books because they are very important for proper evoltuion of child's imagination, vocabulary.