Appetite comes with eating, the lovers of culinary delights say. Well, it seems that this rule is valid for other quarters of life too, including reading. The campaign The Mighty Reading that opened in January, sought to reunite Bulgarian teenagers with books by promoting the rewarding emotions of reading a compelling story, coupled with the knowledge that it can deliver. The idea for the campaign belongs to the youth website Teen Problem. Its authors generated a debate on how much, what, when and how teenagers and young people in Bulgaria tend to read nowadays. The participants in The Mighty Reading were invited to get involved in various online games and quizzes as well. At the end of the campaign the most active participants received prizes. Alexander Nenov, founder and manager of Teen Problem says that The Mighty Reading is a long-term investment in improved literacy, intelligence and general knowledge of Bulgaria’s young generations.
“Though reading might not be on top of the list of teenage problems, we decided to give it some serious attention. After all we believe that reading has a key role to play in bringing up worthy individuals and citizens. Books are unique in delivering clear ideas about the world, its history and its events, while they also can assist young people greatly in their search for the truth and in their pursuit of richer imagination. More than 20,000 users joined our online applications with 5000 of them being particularly active answering questions. This was a good way to find out about the tastes of young people where reading is concerned. One finding was that fantasy is the most popular genre for the present-day young, followed by thrillers and science fiction. Fortunately, Bulgarian classics too, do feature on the list of preferred reading.”
Asked what reading means to them, 36% of the total of 2000 teenagers polled, said it was a way of escaping reality and taking a respite. Reading is useful and a necessary practice, 24% of the polled said. Asked where they make their reading choices, 61% pointed to bookstores, 58% - to advice from friends and 55% – to the Internet.
“I was relieved to see only a small share of people claiming that reading is boring. Interestingly, 82% of the participants in our poll are female. This suggests that young ladies read more than their male coevals. This came as a surprise to me.”
The organizers of The Mighty Reading say that the poll also revealed how free-thinking young people tend to be about reading. The total of 45% said they read only books that they like. Alexander Nenov forecasts a major surge in interest in electronic books in Bulgaria very soon.
English version Daniela Konstantinova
