This study aims at exploring gender differences in text-type-specific reading competences via readers' gender-specific reading preferences. Women were expected to read more often for the sake of entertainment (entertainment preference), whereas men were expected to read more often to gain information (information preference). We further assumed…

The present study compares how Swedish (n = 340) and Norwegian (n = 236) teachers' human capital and social capital support reading habits as an aspect of professional development. The overall aim was to describe how teachers' human and social capital support their professional development as measured by the aspect of reading habits during leisure…

This study examined the extent to which a range of child characteristics (sex, age, socioeconomic status, reading skill and intrinsic and extrinsic reading motivation) predicted engagement (i.e., time spent) in different reading activities (fiction books, factual books, school textbooks, comics, magazines and digital texts). In total, 791 children…

In fall 2015, Scholastic, in conjunction with YouGov, conducted a survey to explore family attitudes and behaviours in India around reading books for fun. The key findings of this research, which are presented in this report, are based on a sample of 1,752 parents and children, including 350 parents of children aged 0-5; 701 parents of children…

This study explored the relationship between reading for pleasure and creativity. University students (N = 225) completed measures of reading for pleasure and creativity (SCAB). The results indicated that reading for pleasure was significantly, positively correlated to creativity. Implications for the classroom are explored, including possible…

A study of formula fiction books was conducted to determine how these books fit into women's lives, what images they bring to mind, and what uses they serve. Seventy-two women from the ages of 18 to 70 read a Harlequin Romance novel by Sue Byfield. Then the group participated in several focus group discussions, a qualitative indepth technique that…

Seven scholars respond individually to these questions: Do you read many contemporary novels? If you do, whose novels do you read and for what reasons? If you no longer read many contemporary novels, why have you ceased to do so and what kinds of reading have supplanted them? (Editor/SJL)

This study assessed the readability of popular print material (newspapers, magazines, and books) published in 1920. Selected passages from these books and articles were analyzed using the Flesch Reading Ease test and other, more theoretically interesting and relevant, readability formulas. Results indicated that "highbrow" publications…

This survey drew on a variety of national surveys and book industry publication and sales statistics to examine the number and kinds of people reading fiction, poetry, and drama. The survey used data from three different national surveys of readers conducted in the mid-1980s and including over 30,000 subjects to conclude that while literature…

Foreword to a series: "National Library Week, April 20-26.

A variety of children's and preteen books are reviewed, including several introductions to poetry and five books of fiction. The themes of the books are happiness, humor, and hope. (JL)

Challenging the common image of reading as a solitary activity, this article describes the social settings in which young people participated in the print culture of a late 19th-century small midwestern town. Analysis of library borrowing records shows that both adults and youth read "low" fiction, shared titles, and engaged in a common culture,…

Discusses ways fictional characters can help children develop reading habits and overcome reading frustrations. (FL)

Discusses the role of readers' advisors in public libraries based on readers' responses to open-ended, qualitative interviews on reading for pleasure. Topics discussed include how books help people, how readers choose books, what they like and dislike about fiction collections in libraries, and how libraries and librarians can be more helpful to…

Following up research by Radway and others on readers of romance novels, a study, employing a reader-response approach, was conducted with 18 female adolescent readers of romances to discover if they perceived and enjoyed the novels in ways appreciably different from other readers. The subjects filled out questionnaires about their romance novel…