Is the love of books ‘inherited’?

Detective is the most popular genre

“Reading greatly shapes the cultural code. This concept has only recently entered our lexicon, so we conducted a separate study to find out how Russians understand the concept of “cultural code,’” Spiridonova began her speech. According to the NAFR’s survey, residents of Russia believe that a cultural code is a set of characteristics, images, and stable ideas that people inherited from their ancestors and that are understandable to every representative of our society. According to the participants in the study, the cultural code of Russians is based on literature, folklore, and fine art. Prominent representatives are Alexander Pushkin, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Ilya Repin, Sergei Mikhalkov and Maya Plisetskaya. According to the NAFR’s findings, these are the people who form a single cultural code of Russians and a single cultural environment. At the same time, 63% of respondents believe that literature makes the greatest contribution to the cultural unification of people who live in Russia.

According to the survey data, fiction is the one that shapes Russians to a greater extent. It is preferred by 42%. However, there are age and gender differences. Fiction is most often chosen by women (48%) and to a lesser extent by men (36%). These are mainly people over 55 (60%) and city dwellers (47%). In rural areas, fiction is preferred by 27% of respondents. But regardless of the type of literature, reading is more typical for people with higher education.

Historical literature is chosen by 21%. In third place are books on psychology and self-development (14%). Then comes popular science literature (13%), documentary and biographical literature (12%). Only 5% of respondents read business literature. According to Spiridonova, there are also gender differences in literary preferences in these categories. For example, books on psychology and self-development are mainly of interest to women. Historical, popular science and reference literature are of more interest to men.

Among those who choose fiction, half prefer to read detective stories. This genre has become the most popular among Russians. Next comes adventure literature (39%) and historical novels (38%). The latter are chosen by people over 45, and the most ardent fans of historical fiction are people aged 55+. As for adventure literature, it is read more by men (55%) than women (28%).

The next most popular genre is romance novels (34%) with a predominantly female audience and a small number of men (9%). In fifth place is science fiction and fantasy (33%) with a male readership. Only 26% of respondents prefer current affairs, manga and comics — 4%. However, poetry lovers accounted for 9%, although it has not sold very well lately.

Is a book the best gift?

Women aged 25-35 are the most proponents of book giving. They give books more often than older people. Only 30% of respondents believe that a book is the best gift, and they themselves often give books. But there are also those who do not like to give books or receive them as gifts. And there are many more of them: 35% of respondents believe that it is better to choose something else as a gift. This opinion is common among men in general, as well as in the age category of 45 years and older.

Despite the fact that a book was not the most desired gift, many Russians collect home libraries. According to NAFR, this is 79%. “A fifth of them have a really large library. It contains more than a hundred books. That is why book giving is so widespread, because almost every one of us has a library at home that can be replenished, and the owner of the library will be happy to receive a book as a gift,” said Lyudmila Spiridonova.

Over the past year, 73% of Russians have read books, and more than a quarter (27%) have not read a single one in a year. But even among those who read, a large proportion (39%) have read less than five books. Only 28% of respondents have read more than five books. If we talk about the time they devote to reading, then almost half of Russians (46%) read less than three hours a day. “This can happen on the way to work or before bed when several pages are read,” Spiridonova assumed.

But there is also a positive trend. According to a study of the agency, 15% of Russians have started reading more over the past year. A third of respondents (36%) noted that reading calms them down, distracts them from the hustle and bustle, problems and disturbing news. 31% of respondents had more free time, which they spent on reading books. Also among the popular reasons are the appearance of interesting books/authors (26%), people started reading in transport or on trips (23%), and reading has become more popular among friends and acquaintances (19%). “The social environment creates conditions for people to get involved in reading. People want to fit in with their social circle,” Spiridonova added.

Multi-format reading

“I believe that the emergence of new formats contributes to the popularization of reading. These are electronic and audio books,” said the executive director of NAFI. According to the analytic centre, electronic books have almost caught up with paper books in popularity. “There are no supporters of only paper books or only electronic ones. Many read both formats, apparently depending on what edition they have in their hands: either they downloaded the book and read it using a gadget, or they read a paper book if it was given to them as a gift or they bought a beautiful edition themselves," Spiridonova noted.

For comparison: paper books are chosen by 90% of readers, and electronic ones by 83%. At the same time, only 10% of respondents do not read paper books at all, and 17% of respondents have the same attitude towards electronic books.

Book listening is actively developing. Audiobooks are chosen by 56% of Russians, the rest are not ready to consume a book in audio format. “Recently, I myself have been actively listening to audiobooks when I go to or from work. “It’s very convenient, it helps to distract yourself from the professional literature that I read at work, and also to use time on the road more effectively,” Lyudmila Spiridonova shared her experience. According to her, these are the main reasons why audiobooks are growing in popularity. But, in addition to this, the library of audiobooks itself is gradually expanding.

What young people read

Young people aged 14 to 35 generally share the opinion that reading contributes to overall development. This is the opinion of 83% in this age category. But only 67% called themselves regular readers or those who are interested in books. A third (33%) of respondents read extremely rarely or do not pay attention to it at all. The youngest representatives of youth aged 14 to 17 read the least. Among them, the share of those who do not read books at all approached 40%. “They mainly read educational literature, often in electronic form or cheat sheets of school homework. “They try to read fiction according to the school curriculum in brief,” Spiridonova noted.

Every fourth (24%) representative of the youth in Russia reads less than an hour a day. Only a third of respondents (31%) manage to read more than ten books a year. “Many said that the time allocated for reading books is often taken up by reading educational literature,” Lyudmila Spiridonova commented on the data.

Top 5 categories of literature among young readers:

1. Fiction (60%);
2. Psychology and self-development (42%);
3. Educational literature (25%);
4. Popular science books (22%);
5. Historical literature (22%).

Teenagers from 14 to 17 years old most often read science fiction, fantasy and romance novels. The latter genre is especially popular among girls (71%). “Despite the prevalence of gadgets, young people use all formats. If it seems that young people read only e-books, this is not true. Among young people, 90% read paper books, and 83% read e-books,” said the representative of the NAFR.

Parental example

When the question of teaching young children to read arises, they usually talk about the number of books at home and whether parents read to their children. But an important point is often excluded — the parents' love of reading. Can parents instil a love of books by their example? NAFI has analyzed this relationship.

According to its data, 61% of Russians who have children aged from one to six years read books every day or several times a week. But 39% of parents read to their children extremely rarely, and 5% do not do this at all. Spiridonova believes that the percentage of parents who do not read books to their children at all is much higher. “They were just embarrassed to say so,” the researcher explained.

Among those who read books to their children, these are mostly mothers (65%), not fathers (44%). A third of parents read books to their children rarely — only once a week or less. Parents who like to read books themselves are more likely to say that their children also like to listen to their parents read a book (64% versus 36%). And those parents who rarely read books to themselves or do not read books at all said that their children do not like to listen to books being read. 52% of children of such parents do not like it when they are read to. “Perhaps parents who do not like to read justify themselves by saying that their children do not like it either,” Spiridonova suggested.

The reasons, according to parents who do not read books to their children:

• Tired, no energy;
• No time, come home from work when the child is already asleep;
• The child does not like to be read to;
• Fathers often refuse to read to children because their mother or grandmother has already read to the child;
• They do not read themselves, so they do not read to the child.

The NAFR claims that reading practices are “inherited.” If your parents read books to you as a child, then you are more likely to read books to your children. It turned out that 78% of parents who were often read to by their parents read books to their children every day or almost every day before bed. But among those who were not read to as children, only 46% read to their children every day.

Lyudmila Spiridonova believes that publishing houses and libraries should make parents their main audience. Because reading youth are yesterday's children who were interested in books. And interest in reading is nothing more than copying the behaviour of parents.

Ekaterina Petrova is a book reviewer of Realnoe Vremya online newspaper, the author of Poppy Seed Muffins Telegram channel and founder of the first online subscription book club Makulatura.