Half of Russia does not read books

According to polls, 50% of Russians have not read a single book over the past year. 60% - did not buy a single book. If in the 1970s 80% of families read books with children, now-7%.

This information was given at the round table “Book and Reading in the cultural space of Russia”, which took place last week in the State Duma Culture Committee, Russian Newspaper reports.

For two years, more than a thousand bookstores closed in Russia. As a result, there are no more than 1,500 of them throughout the country - for 143 million people, that is, about 1 store per hundred thousand people. For comparison, in France with a population of approximately 65 million bookstores - 3500.

The number of municipal libraries continues to contract. At the end of 2012 there were 39969. In 2002 - 48697 - over 10 years the reduction was 18%. The aggregate fund of libraries is also reduced: in 2012, it amounted to 607.6 million copies, in 2002-710, 1 million, i.e. The reduction was 15%.

At the same time, in the list of the most reading countries in the world, Russia takes 7th place (1st-India, 2nd-China, 3rd-Thailand). In the first place in the world for the development of children's reading (children under 10 years old) - Hong Kong, Russia is in the second.

A lot of books are published in Russia: only in 2013, more than 120512 items of books and brochures were released with a total circulation of 541, 7 million copies. For each resident of our country, in this way, there are about 4 new books annually. The share of Russian authors is 90%.

State Duma deputies, representatives of the Ministry of Culture and Rospechat, the Ministry of Communications, the Russian Book Union, the Russian Library Association, the heads of publishing houses and bookstores, librarians and writers participated in the round table. “Issues of the state and prospects for the development of literature and reading in the cultural space of the country, the accessibility of the reading infrastructure for the Russian” were discussed.