To determine if purposes in reading differ with sex, grade level, and nationality, a 16-item "Functions of Reading Scale" (developed from content analysis of student essays on why they like to read) was administered to 459 Irish (Dublin, Ireland) and American (Windham, Connecticut) students in grades three, five, and eight. Data analysis, revealing three main reasons for reading--enjoyment, utility, and escape--also showed several interesting trends: (1) girls read more for enjoyment while boys read for utilitarian purposes, (2) students in fifth grade had the highest enjoyment scores and those in third had the highest overall scores in utility and escapism, and (3) Irish students read more often for enjoyment and utility and less often for escapist reasons than did Americans. While limited by a small and possibly not representative sample, the research nevertheless indicated the usefulness of the "uses and gratification" approach of mass communication research, which assumes that subjects actively pursue communication materials on the basis of predetermined needs. (MM)