Almost 4 million adults never read books for pleasure, per new research, with loss of time one of the crucial-cited reasons for not reading.
Men are much more likely than women to bypass picking up a book, with 11% of fellows and 5% of ladies surveyed saying they never read for pleasure. 1 / 4 of the UK’s adult population – greater than 12 million people – had picked up a book to read for enjoyment below twice previously six months.
The YouGov survey was completed on a sample of two,059 adults in January. Shortness of time for reading was an issue for 29% of respondents, 40% preferred to do something else and 26% said they “didn’t enjoy reading a great deal”.
“Reading can bring much for your life, from supplying you with something to speak about with friends to helping you relax or taking you to a different world, so it’s sad to think that one in four individuals are in any such reading rut that they hardly pick up a book,” said Cathy Rentzenbrink from Quick Reads, which has launched a group of £1 “bite-size books” by authors including Andy McNab and Kathy Lette to encourage more people to read. “This isn’t polling those who are illiterate – it is a representative sample. And on top of that, the recognised statistic is that one in six adults of working age within the UK struggle with literacy. While you’re a reader, it’s quite difficult to get your head round the incontrovertible fact that someone won’t find reading easy, so that you can get to adulthood and never read o.k..”
The UK figures, however, compare favourably with recent statistics from the united states, where Pew Internet found 25% of american citizens over the age of 16 had not read a book within the last year.
“Possibly things have improved,” said Rentzenbrink. “E-reading is opening up channels to those that would possibly not have considered themselves as a book reader. i am hoping things are becoming better.”
