65% of young India spares less than 1 hour a day on reading
Two thirds of young, urban Indians spend less than an hour reading every day and over a quarter prefer to read matter only in newspapers and on news websites, found a survey conducted by Hindustan Times-C Fore.
Two thirds of young, urban Indians spend less than an hour reading every day and over a quarter prefer to read matter only in newspapers and on news websites, found a survey conducted by Hindustan Times-C Fore.
This indicates that young Indians leading hectic lives have little time to spare for reading, and when they do, accessible, entertaining and easily comprehensible stuff is what they are likely to pick up.
Not surprisingly Chetan Bhagat, whom New York Times had called India’s highest-selling English language novelist, leads the list of writers whose work young Indians (34%) prefer to read, while Harry Potter creator JK Rowling comes a distant second. On the other hand, Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk is read by only 1% of the surveyed group.
The survey which covered readers in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Bangalore, found that only 12% of them devote more than 10 hours each week to reading while 23% squeeze in five to 10 hours for it. Close to 50% of the respondents spend between one and five hours, and 19%, only less than an hour per week on reading.
During these hours, 24% of those surveyed read fiction while 18% opt for non-fiction. Thirty percent of the respondents manage to read fiction, non-fiction in addition to newspapers and stuff on news websites.
In terms of reading preferences, fiction is the choice for 42% of young India, followed by comics or graphic novels for 32%, while 26% opt for non-fiction.
Entertainment and easy reading were the two top reasons for reading, with 38% and 23% respectively saying so. Of those surveyed 12% want to read stuff that they can later talk about with friends and colleagues while 27% look for material that makes them think.