A report by the Egyptian Cabinet’s Information and Decision Support Center (IDSC) revealed that 88 percent of Egyptian families are not interested in reading anything other than school books. Researchers attributed the lack of interest in reading to the fact that Egyptians focus on other "life priorities," especially given low incomes and high book prices.
The report noted that 1.8 million Egyptians visited the last Cairo International Book Fair, a fraction of Egypt’s 80 million people.
Magazines and newspapers also fail to attract Egyptian readers. According to the report, 76 percent of Egyptian families do not read newspapers. Religious books topped the list of most popular reading topics with 79 percent, while scientific books sat at 33 percent, and literature 29 percent. Only 11 percent of those surveyed said they read books about politics.
The IDSC report said that 67 percent of Egyptians who read the newspaper read political news, while sports and economic news followed at 60 percent.
Among young people surveyed, 60 percent said that they acquire books primarily through "borrowing," while 44 percent said they buy books, and only 27 percent said they keep savings specifically for book expenses, which average LE34 per month.
73.6 percent of Egyptian youth read on the internet, with females outnumbering males in internet reading percentage (77.7 percent compared to 68 percent), the report said.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
