Survey of the literature reading habits and preferences of adolescents : a study of a public school in India

• Main Authors: Loan, Fayaz Ahmad, Shah, Refhat-un-nisa
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2021
• Subjects: Library and information science
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/154340
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Background. In the modern competitive age, reading is the cornerstone for success in all academic disciplines. Objective. The study sought to find out the literature reading habits and preferences of adolescent students, and the promotional tactics of authors to attract these students towards reading. Method. The data was collected in the Delhi Public School, Srinagar in India, from students of 11th and 12th classes (grades), aged between 14-16 years. A questionnaire survey was administered to 150 students who were systematically sampled. Results. The study found that adolescents of both genders like reading (69% of girls; 65% of boys) on electronic media. Adolescents have varied tastes in reading. Fiction is the most preferred genre of literature read by respondents, followed by non-fiction. However, girls have a greater preference for fiction compared to boys. Similarly boys have a greater preference for non-fiction compared to girls. Among the various genres of fiction, crime/detective is the most read genre, followed by realistic teen fiction. Romance and poetry are more popular among girls, whereas crime/detective, horror, and realistic teen fiction are more popular among boys. For non-fiction, the respondents generally read self-help/personality development books, followed by personalities and historical literature. Boys prefer to read about personalities whereas self-help/personality development is the first preference of girls. To attract adolescents, authors include aggression and violence, romantic language, explicit content (sexuality), and slang/crude language amongst other tactics in their writings (literature).