A home library remains a typical feature of the Russian lifestyle - over two-thirds of those surveyed report having an impressive fiction book collection (several dozens at least, with 23% having hundreds or even thousands of books).

14% say they don?t have any fiction books at all. We could suggest that a home library is a legacy of the Soviet lifestyle, with its reverential attitude towards books. Many home libraries (44%) have books inherited from the older generations. Yet only 14% of respondents claim the old books constitute the greater part of their libraries. A noticeably larger number of those polled (22%) say their libraries consist largely of recent acquisitions. 39% say their home libraries don?t contain any books inherited from their parents or grandparents.

About one-third of Russians say they have bought fiction books over the past two years. These are largely contemporary Russian authors (22%), and less often contemporary foreign literature and Russian classics (9% and 8%, respectively). Soviet fiction and foreign classics are noticeably less popular (4% each). Mystery novels top the list of popular genres (17%), followed by historical novels and short stories (12%). 8% pick love stories, these being popular not only with women (11%), but with men as well (6%).

It is worth noting that the poll found no substantial differences between male and female reading behavior. Russian readers are rather satisfied with the choice of books available in bookstores (nearly 60% of inhabitants of large towns and 45% of residents of small towns are satisfied with the selection). In rural areas, this problem appears to be more acute: only 27% are satisfied with the choices in local bookstores, while 30% are dissatisfied. Interest in fiction appears to be pretty high: many respondents (38%) discuss books with their friends.

Another remarkable fact is that people value their books; they are not likely to dispose of them, and if this does happen, they give them away to relatives and friends. Over the past two years, 24% of those polled gave books away to friends, while another 9% passed them to libraries, and only 5% threw them away.

However, half of the interviewees haven?t read any fiction over the last year. The other half of those surveyed borrow them from friends and relatives, or take them from the shelves of their home libraries. Only 9% borrow books from public libraries, and only 1% read them on the Internet (among young respondents, this category reaches 2%). It is hardly surprising that university graduates constitute the core of Russian fiction readers: they are more likely than others to have read and bought books (73% and 55%, respectively), and to own huge book libraries numbering hundreds of volumes or more (46%).


FOM
sections: Society, Region News
areas: Central region