
Wednesday, 23rd April 2008 - 11:27CET
Malta at bottom of EU readership table
A Eurobarometer Survey carried out between February and March 2007 showed that 54 per cent of Maltese respondents did not read a book in the preceding 12 months - the highest percentage in the EU, where the average is 28 percent.
In Sweden, 60 percent of respondents indicating that they had read more than five books during the reference period.
According to the same survey, 75 percent of Maltese respondents never visited a public library during the reference period. The country that made most use of public libraries was Denmark, where 39 percent of respondents visited a public library more than five times during the preceding 12 months.
The National Statistics Office said that in Malta, membership of libraries has been in decline for the past four years but new membership by adults increased in Gozo last year.
The total number of book acquisitions in public libraries increased from 19,995 in 2006 to 27,119 in 2007, mainly due to donations received by libraries.
A significant increase was noted in private consumption expenditure on newspapers and periodicals during 2007 when compared to 2006. A marginal increase was noted in the expenditure of books during 2007 over the previous year.
World Book and Copyright Day is being celebrated today.




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Comments
Reading is entertaing, relaxing and educational.
Moreover, Malta enjoys excellent weather (ask the Scandinavians!!), and I for one would rather go out and enjoy what I can than stay inside reading a book.
Perhaps these European agencies hope that the Maltese can't read neither and that they can save face.
a) Southern Europeans have more of an outdoor lifestyle than people living up North.
b) Few people use public transport (too inefficient and bumpy), and the distances are not long enough to read a book.
Let's take the environmental problem of throwing rubbish out. We had the Xummiemu campaign, targeted at the youngest. That was a success - kids telling their parents not to throw rubbish out. Fine.
We had the campaign targeted again at kiddies telling them that kids shouldn't take alcohol. The effects of this campaign shall hopefully bear their fruits in the future more than in the present.
Is it possible to change the culture of the parents? Maybe it is, but it's too difficult. Let's put our cards on the table - for certain parents, what's important is not that their kids read, but that their kids keep out of mischief, while they do what they please ... now ... if keeping out of mischief means reading, that's perfect. If keeping out of mischief means watching TV, or spending hours in front of a computer, maybe in their room .... then hard luck, but it's a good way to keep the kids out of causing problems! A good baby-sitter - for free!
The school is the ideal environment where kids are nurtured to experience the beauty of reading, and gathering knowledge. Teach the kids to enjoy reading, and the country will have future parents who will teach their kids the same.
If children nowadays spend more time watching TV in their rooms, it's because we parents put the TV there in the first place. If they spend more time playing video or computer games, it's because we parents don't control their time.
Schools do prescribe an amount of daily reading and this may be viewed as homework. However, the books the children read need not be textbooks but age appropriate books either bought by the parents or acquired from a library.
Let's not try to shift the blame on any political party's education strategies but take up our parental responsibilities.
Very few Maltese people take a book with them to the beach - they'd rather lie down motionless in the sun for hours than read.
This week I was in a long queue to meet my doctor and everyone was complaining about how long it was taking him to see each patient. If they'd have done like me and brought a book along...
Have you not understood the English in the report?
Reading is something people like to do, like having any other hobby...Seems that this hobby is very low in the Maltese hobby list. A few weeks ago I was in a waiting line at Boffa Hospital, there was quite a long queue, from all the people in the waiting line, no one chose to read a book to pass the time, instead there where headed and "informed' arguments about every topic under the sun, including: what a flop Mater Dei hospital is since the windows don't open, and that St luke's was better since at least you could get some fresh air through the ward window, "in dept analysis" of the causes of inflation in Malta, how the first Mafia boss in Sicily was a Maltese!!!, Bekky VS Giselle and much more.....
Compare the same scene, same people on the London tube..if you would not be reading a book or a newspaper... you'd be as in conspicuous as if you were dressed in a Zorro Costume impersonating Bin Laden.
re book prices yes they are expensive in Malta, but even in European bookshops they are not cheap. Thank God for the internet ... i buy new second hand books online at fantastic prices online from Malta - www.ilovebooks.com.mt
And PN blamed the MLP for the Reception Class, labelling it the Repeater Class ...
I truly believe that what the changes brought about by the PN in the education sector were more directed to the more mature students, that is, those with the ability to vote, or close to ...
The younger generation need to be planted and grown in a new culture. Kids spend more time playing video games and looking at TV programmes that they lost interest in books and in what is educational, to the expense of the fictional. This is the culture change that is required. Quality of life is not only about having a computer and a TV in the kids' bedrooms ... but also of forming them into becoming an educated generation for tomorrow.