Each Iranian reads one book every 1892 days: report

June 26, 2008 - 0:0

TEHRAN -- Each Iranian individual reads one book in every 1892 day (over 5 years), IRIB News and Media School reported in a study published on Wednesday.

The study was carried out last month by a group of students from the school to find out the relations between the high price of books in Iran and the rate of book reading amongst the people.
The report indicates that people in the developing countries account for 80 percent of the world population, but produce less than 30 percent of the books, and even less than 30 percent of the people read the books. Meanwhile, 70 percent of all books are produced in industrialized countries.
For example, France with 60 million populations or more sells over 350,000 volumes of books per day, the report adds.
It is to mention that in Iran, girls read more than boys in their spare time. Students also read 5.5minutes in their weekends and spend most of their times on doing homework, watching TV and doing personal activities.
At the present time, there are almost 1,775 libraries housing 15 million books across the country, but based on an international standard, 14,000 more libraries with 140 million more books are needed.
The report also continues that each Iranian family spends a little on purchasing books. This shows their low interest in book reading. Only 1,029,000 people are members of libraries in Iran, while in modern countries over 30 percent of people are members of libraries.
And that’s why Iran with a long cultural background does not enjoy a good status amongst the world countries.
The report ends up with the conclusion that high price of books is the major reason for not having the culture of book reading in the country.