I came across this table for the percentage of people in each country that have read books in the last 12 months. I’m guessing that this means more than one single book being read. Now that the UK is not in the EU the British dismal percentage of 50% is not shown.
That means half of the UK population have not read a book, or struggled to get through one single book, in 12 months. No wonder many people are so poor at language, so unworldly, so limited in their thinking, so unable to take a different perspective, so insensitive to others.
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Interesting, I wonder if there are statistics available breaking these percentages down according to age?
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A good question. I’ve saved you trouble of googling this yourself and found this interesting / depressing report from this year.
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Thank you Lincs!
I shall sit down later on and read through your link at leisure.
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Do you not hold the Internet partly to blame also the ridiculous amount of television channels available 24/7. It seems to have become the norm when ones days labours are finished and in fact at any time of the day or night to just switch on “The Box”, scroll through that myriad of channels, order that fast food online which turns up in a black box on the back of a motorbike in most cases, then fall asleep on your favourite armchair.
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That table isn’t quite so straightforward is it?
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Funnily enough, I was thinking along parallel lines. I looked at the list of sensible northern countries at the top of the “read lots” list and wondered if there was a link between terrible television and lots of reading. Certainly the times I’ve been stuck in a hotel room in Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Sweden, etc. I have flipping through awful TV. Okay this was 20 years ago and I didn’t always know the local language. But you can spot a dull panel of old men discussing a dull topic regardless of language. Same as you can spot a cheap, shoddy quiz game. Or a documentary on goats cheese production in the local mountains. No wonder book reading goes up.
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Hmmm, I’m not sure one can jump to conclusions about non book reading equating to unworldiness, limited thinking etc
For starters there is no mention of what books are read - if I read a trashy romance a week ,how does that make more worldly and wider in my thinking?
I think many people now just get their information from different sources than full books - yes, the internet, other technology sources etc - or read the parts of books that are relevant to them which by this chart doesn’t count as it isnt ‘read a full book’
I say this as a person who certainly has read a full book in the last 12 months - in fact about a dozen of them - but I would be wary about claiming superior sensitvity, perspective etc from that.
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That is true. And insights on the world can be gained from other media. But books are uniquely good at giving people the ability to see and understand alternative points of view and the different perspectives people can have - even via characters in trashy novels.
Lots of studies point to lots of benefits
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This is a very interesting topic. I’m not surprised at seeing our country very low down on your list @Lincolnshire. I am also very sad to hear that book reading has dropped considerably in the UK. I’ve practically often boasted to my family and friends here about how the British are famous for being book lovers. I left London during the times where many people on tubes and busses had their heads down in a book during their journey.
I noticed immediately this difference when I moved to Italy, not many book lovers because they have always been very expensive, at least twice as much as they were in Britain, even more.
Now the percentage has gone down even more due to this fast moving technology.
It doesn’t matter whether you read serious intellectual books or just “comfort” light romances, you are reading at least the correct language form. OK, so you can swap these books for e-books, but isn’t it so much more 'human" and satisfying, turning the pages of a book rather than scrolling up and down, left to right, putting up with network line problems, battery chargers and all the rest? Isn’t it less stressful?
There’s nothing like curling up on the sofa with a warm blanket, reading a real book in the cold winter months, is there? 
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When I was a kid books were very much a part of my culture and upbringing. My parents would take me on trips to the library on Saturday’s, we’d visit the second hand book shops in those wonderful musty vaulted cellars in London’s Charing Cross Road. The schools would also take classes on trips to the local library.
Having said that I suspect that there was a higher level of adult illiteracy during the sixties and early seventies. Back to those statistics again I suppose? 
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Exactly Rose, and I’m not even going to bring mulled wine into this!
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I guess I should learn to read one day before I leave it too late. My maffs is fine. I’m up to my 5x table already.
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I know what you mean about the tactile and engaging quality of a printed book. But I’d be happy if people were using e-books. On commutes they mostly seemed to have dropped the e-books and switched to watching films or TV series on their phones and tablets.
I remember on the commute to London when e-books took off, back 14 or 15 years ago. This seemed to coincide with 50 Shades of Gray being published. Anyone could get their morning titillation but not have to show the book cover to the rest of the train.
Is that what I meant by gaining worldliness from books? I hope not.
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No - for me ebooks are not more stressful or less satisfying at all.
swiping is not harder or more stressful than paper page turning, charging my tablet is easy and network line problems are a total non issue - once the book is downloaded onto the tablet I dont need internet connection any more.
I get that some people prefer paper books and that’s fine - but the issues you mention are really not issues at all.
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I’m very fond of my books.A relationship I could never have with anything electronic. 
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As a former librarian and watching the daily reading habits of my mom, I can say for myself, there is nothing more comforting than having a novel to pick up from my bedside stand at the end of a day.
A hard cover book is a life long friend, even after the read. With ebooks, poof, they disappear. Almost as if you never had them at all.
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So true @RightNow, isn’t it lovely just to stroll around bookshops too, and having our book-shelves at home filled with lots of varieties.
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Yes, of course I understand many people don’t have any problems with reading e- books, they weren’t issues, just my point of view.
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I have to say that I find a ‘real’ book more conducive to sleep last thing at night. I’m sure that screens can have the opposite effect to some extent.
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