A study examined the roles of reading in a community by describing the reading activities of individuals and demographic subgroups of individuals. After the preliminary, trial phase to determine the feasibility of the survey, 109 adult wage earners from 4 occupation groups, in a community of 6,000 households, responded to an inventory designed to elicit and record reading activities. Analysis of data showed that the median amount of time individuals spent reading brief documents, newspapers, books, and magazines per day at home and at work was 157.5 minutes (about 2.6 hours). Women read more than men (about 186 minutes per day compared to about 114 minutes per day), and individuals with an education beyond high school read more than those with a high school diploma or less. Findings also showed that reading plays different roles for individuals in different occupation groups, that the time devoted to content areas varies by occupation, and that media categories of newspapers, books, and magazines were read in distinctive patterns by different occupation groups. In the surveyed community, the greatest volume of reading was directed toward reading brief documents, followed by materials on news and business, social issues, reference, fiction, and sports. References and tables of findings are included. (EL)