Reading survey results
In January we asked our readers to tell us about their reading habits. Here are the answers from the more than 600 teens who responded (thank you very much for helping us out). We randomly chose three people to win $100 for participating. Congratulations to: Mark Zamudio of Temple Intermediate School (Rosemead), Alma Mendez of Garey HS (Pomona) and Victor Magallon of Bell Gardens HS. Note: Some percentages do not add up to 100 because respondents checked all the answers that applied.
| RESPONDENTS WERE: | |
| Gender: | |
| Female | 58% |
| Male | 42% |
| Ethnicity: | |
| Latino | 66% |
| Asian | 22% |
| White | 11% |
| Black | 8% |
| Others | 9% |
| ANSWERS: | |
| Do you like to read? | |
| Yes | 79% |
| No | 21% |
| If you chose “no” in the first question, why not? | |
| I get bored when I read | 28% |
| I haven’t found books that I like | 24% |
| Other | 23% |
| I’m a slow reader | 18% |
| It isn’t cool | 7% |
| What kind of books do you like to read? | |
| Fiction | 62% |
| Mystery/suspense | 59% |
| Action/adventure | 56% |
| Romance | 45% |
| Fantasy | 44% |
| Horror | 43% |
| Comic books/manga | 37% |
| Poetry | 29% |
| Science fiction | 27% |
| Biography/autobiography/memoir | 25% |
| War | 25% |
| History | 23% |
| Classic literature | 18$ |
| Westerns | 4% |
| How many books did you read for fun (not for school) in 2010? | |
| 1 – 5 | 35% |
| 6 – 10 | 21% |
| More than 20 | 17% |
| 11 – 15 | 12% |
| 16 – 20 | 8% |
| 0 | 7% |
| How many days do you usually read for fun each week? | |
| 1 – 3 | 52% |
| Every day | 17% |
| 4 – 6 | 17% |
| 0 | 14% |
| What prevents you from reading more for fun? | |
| I don’t have enough time | 51% |
| I read as much as I want to | 35% |
| I’d rather watch TV, go online, play video games or hang out with my friends | 28% |
| I read so much for school that I don’t want to read for fun | 16% |
| Books cost too much | 11% |
| I don’t like reading | 9% |
| The public libraries are closed | 3% |
| Do you have a card for the public library? | |
| Yes | 78% |
| No | 22% |
| When was the last time you visited a public library? | |
| In the last month | 50% |
| More than a year ago | 17% |
| In the last three months | 16% |
| In the last year | 16% |
| There are no libraries in my community | 1% |
| Where do you get the books that you read for fun? | |
| Public library | 59% |
| School library | 48% |
| Buy them at a bookstore or online | 38% |
| From friends | 34% |
| Borrow from a teacher | 33% |
| My family already owns them | 28% |
| Besides school books, what do you read most? | |
| Books | 31% |
| Magazines | 25% |
| Websites | 19% |
| Comic books/manag | 15% |
| Newspapers | 10% |
| What’s the last book you read for fun? Or what book are you currently reading for fun? (Below are the most common answers) | |
| A Child Called “It” by Dave Pelzer | |
| Burned, Impulse and Fallout by Ellen Hopkins | |
| The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer | |
| The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton | |
| The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins | |
| The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky | |
| The Last Song and At First Sight by Nicholas Sparks | |
| Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling | |
| The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold | |
| Pretty Little Liars series by Sara Shepard | |
| Always Running by Luis Rodriguez | |
