Page 121 - AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report

READERS
Wanted: twenty-first-century reader. In-depth study of a “one-reader band”
How reports on cultural habits define Spanish readers
According to the CIS’s Barometer survey,44 which we mentioned earlier, the percentage of people who are interested in reading in Spain (61.6%)
is higher than that of people who have little or no interest in reading, though the latter group accounts for a strikingly large 38.2%.
Most Spanish homes therefore do not have very well-stocked libraries: 36.5% have between five and fifty books on paper and 38.7% have the same number in digital format. A small group (but it exists) have no books on paper at home (1.8%). And a large group have no digital books (74.5%).
Nor is spending on reading a priority for Span- iards. Only 51.8% claim to have bought a book over the past year and a large percentage (47.6%)
state they have never bought one. But nor are library services widely used. Only 28.2% claim to go to the library, while 70.9% do not use it.
Of those who are interested in reading, nearly half (28.6%) read every day or nearly every day. But in contrast, 36.1% never or hardly ever read. Spanish readers read chiefly for pleasure (59.7%), though this pastime does not appeal to 42.3% of respondents, who do not read because they do not enjoy it or are not interested.
Most readers say they prefer reading books on paper (78.6%). Many have never read a digital book either partially or totally (62.2%), and some do not even have any intention of doing so (46.6%). Only 11.2% of those polled expressed a preference for reading books digitally.
These figures are similar to those gathered in the study by the firm of consultants GfK, which was published at the start of 201745 and concluded that 32% of Spanish respondents read every or nearly every day. The percentage rises to 57% if
AC/E DIGITAL CULTURE ANNUAL REPORT 2018
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Readers in the digital age