READING HABITS IN BRITAIN

Southland Times, Issue 24153, 15 June 1940, Page 15

READING HABITS IN BRITAIN

Not long ago there was started in Britain an organization by the name of the British Institute of Public Opinion. Its surveys are conducted on the same lines as the Gallup surveys in the United States. The results of its inquiries are published exclusively in a London daily, the News Chronicle. They are not, of course, as definite and reliable an expression of the national mind as is given by the polling at a general election, but they do indicate the trend of public opinion with a fanamount of accuracy. Hitherto they have been almost entirely concerned with domestic and international politics and have thus largely served the purpose of straw votes. The latest survey, however, has been an investigation of the reading habits of the general public. The first question put by the interviewers was: “Do you find time to read books?” To this 62 out of every 100 answered “Yes” and 38 “No.” Men were found to outnumber women as readers by 4 per cent. Young readers outnumber middle-aged readers by 12 per cent., and the middle-aged outnumber the elderly by 10 per cent. In the higher income group 75 per cent, read books, as compared with 58 in the lower income group. In reply to a question how they came by the last book they read, 35 per cent, said they borrowed it from a public library, 20 per cent. from a twopenny library, 9 per cent, from a subscription library and 20 per cent, from I a friend, while 15 per cent, bought it. | Nearly twice as many women as men | patronize the twopenny libraries—as one might have guessed from observing the reading material most popular with young women clerics in the subway trains —but nearly twice as many men as "women are buyers of books. A caution is necessary in interpreting the figures relating to book buying. Many people in what one may euphemistically call the less-educated classes habitually speak of a magazine or a periodical—though not a newspaper—as a book. This misuse of terms will not affect the statistics given above as to borrowers from any variety of library, but it is safe to say that the 15 per cent, of professed bookbuyers includes a considerable proportion of persons who do not really buy books at all. Altogether, the institute’s report, while it may not depress the spirits of authors or publishers, is extremely disquieting to booksellers. I