Two-thirds of Maltese read newspapers; book readers prefer love stories

While 62.3% of the Maltese like reading, 37.7% said they do not. But reading habits reflect one's socio-economic group. Thus, while 85.2% of those in the AB category enjoy reading, only 47% of those in the DE category do so.

Newspaper readers make up 66.8% of the population, but magazines in English are read by only 35.8%, and only 30.8% read books in English. Magazines in Maltese are read by 18.2%, while 13.4% enjoy reading books in Maltese.

These are some of the findings of our latest opinion survey conducted by sociologist Mario Vassallo. The survey was carried out by telephone among 300 households in Malta and Gozo between May 9 and 15.

More males (76.7%) read newspapers than females (57.7%), but books in Maltese have a largely female readership (20.6% vs. 5.6% for males).

As for types of books preferred, 31.9% said they read love stories, followed by fiction/novels at 30.6% and history/folklore at 22.2%. The vast majority of those who read love stories are women (52.4%, vs. 3.3% for males). Conversely, male readers of history/folklore books outnumber females 33.3% to 14.3%.

Asked whether they read books and magazines in other languages besides Maltese and English, 11.8% said they also read in Italian; 1.1% read in French and 0.5% in German.

Only 17.3% of Maltese borrow books from lending libraries; 40.7% of respondents said they never read books, while 33% said they read between one and five books a year. Just 1.5% said they read more than 50 books a year.

A worrying 69.7% said they do not have a bookcase at home; 29.7% said they did.

Since the reading habit is generally picked up when one is young, respondents were asked whether, as children, they had anyone in the family reading books to them. As many as 65.7% said that no-one read to them when they were children. Of those who had someone read to them, 4% said they were read to daily, 15.3% often, and 15% rarely. In most cases (77.7%) the mother did the reading. The majority (72.8%) were read to in Maltese, the rest in English.

Asked whether they thought Malta had quality newspapers, 33% said that it did not. Of the remaining 67%, 59.3% consider The Sunday Times and The Times to fall in this category.

Finally, 45% believe the Internet has had a negative effect on reading, while 25.7% believe the influence of the Internet on reading was positive; 17.7% said it had no effect either way, while 11.7% could not give an answer.

Asked to comment on the findings, Professor Vassallo said:

"This study raises a number of questions about us Maltese and how much we treasure reading. There is a rather disconcerting number of us who do not like reading at all. And then what we read does not automatically point to our society being very literary or scientifically oriented. Many Maltese read newspapers but books are not very popular. The popularity of magazines is not very high either, and then we tend to go for the glossy ones.

"It is often said that a cultured society is a book society. If this is true, this study finds Maltese society wanting. This is indeed a big challenge that must be addressed with the same strength, and at the same time, that early school leaving and illiteracy, which in Malta are not minimal by European standards, are being addressed at present by the education authorities.

"Modern society is knowledge-based. Without reading we cannot ever evolve into one. The Internet, even this study confirms, has had a mixed effect on the level of reading among the Maltese. Whether it is for fun, recreation, continuous education, or for general self-fulfilment, we Maltese need to read more, and digest more the written word. Perhaps we should stop being less of a nation renowned for spending long hours glued to our TV screens, and instead become more assiduous bookworms!", Professor Vassallo concluded.