According to a research on Turkey's Reading Culture, readers' rate increased from 30 percent to 42 percent since 2008. According to the study, people under the age of 30 are reading more. According to Meral Danyıldız's report from BirGün Daily, as part of the 38th International Istanbul Book Fair, ‘Map of the Reading Culture in Turkey’ was announced in an event organized by Turkey Publishers Association and the Okuyay Platform. Konda Research and Consultancy (KONDA) General Manager Bekir Ağırdır reminded that the reading rate was 30 percent in Turkey according to the research that they had conducted in 2008. Ağırdır said, “one of the important findings of the research the reading rate in Turkey from 2008 to 2019, rising to 42 percent from 30 percent.” Stating that there is a negative bias against the young people which is wrong, Ağırdır added, “more than half of the 19 million young people under the age of 30 are not clumsy children like in the myths, but they are open to the world, open to life and try hard for success.” “MOSTLY HISTORY BOOKS ARE BEING READ” Recalling that the results of the study are in this direction, Ağırdır said, “the most important finding, unlike in Europe, is the following; In Western Europe, while reading  among the young people is decreasing due to the prominence of visuality with the impact of social media, we are in an opposite direction as both are increasing. Because these young people have no chance other than reading and improving themselves to be successful.” Ağırdır stated that according to the research the most read book genre is history books, recalling that there are different understandings of history in the society, everyone is directed to history books in an effort to learn the truth. “30 PERCENT OF PARTICIPANTS DO NOT READ BOOKS” KONDA analyst Aydın Erdem announced that 30 percent of the participants never purchased a book in a face-to-face survey with more than 2900 people and said: “We conducted the research by talking to over 2900 people in 166 neighborhoods/villages. We knocked on 9,000 doors to find these people. 16 percent was rural, 52 percent metropolitan, 52 percent in urban areas. We asked if you read books other than religious or textbooks, 30 percent said they do not read books.” Erdem said, a slice of 34 percent only read religious books. “22 PERCENT HAVE NO BOOKS” Erdem gave the data of the research as follows: -How many books did you read in the last three months?
  • 36 percent did not read at all
  • 34 percent said 1 or 2 books
-How many books do you have?
  • 22 percent have no books
  • 32 percent have more than 20 books
-What was the name of the last book you read?
  • 47 percent did not name a book
  • 53 percent managed to say only one name
  • 42 percent of the respondents read novels, stories, and poems
  • 34 percent read religious books
Translated by Atakan Hüyük