(Download) "Transports of the Imagination: Some Relations Between Globalization and Literature." by Arena Journal " eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Transports of the Imagination: Some Relations Between Globalization and Literature.
- Author : Arena Journal
- Release Date : January 01, 2002
- Genre: Religion & Spirituality,Books,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 210 KB
Description
In the year 2000, as part of a program to 'encourage participation in, appreciation, value and enjoyment of reading' the ACNielsen company was commissioned by the Australian Government's primary cultural agency--the Australia Council--to survey what it called 'reading for pleasure' in Australia. (1) The results were unexpected. Television, of course, was found to be the most frequent leisure activity among the sample of just over 1500 (ninety-seven per cent of respondents watched it everyday), but reading came second, well ahead of the Internet, computer games or the movies. Seventy-eight per cent read for pleasure most days of the week, on average spending about eight hours a week doing so. Seventy-three per cent of all parents regularly read to their children. Furthermore, enjoyment of reading was only slightly linked to class and education: seventy-seven per cent of all 'upper white collar' respondents read for pleasure while sixty-nine per cent of the 'lower blue collar' segment did so. (2) Book purchasing was also surprisingly robust: about forty per cent of all books being read actually having been bought by their readers. The ACNielsen survey indicates that in Australia at least, reading is probably as popular as it ever has been. Although Australia has historically been a nation where reading ranks high as a leisure behaviour in comparison even with other OECD nations, there are few reasons to suppose that reading for pleasure is in decline elsewhere. Books sales in most countries are steadily, if slowly, increasing, not least in those parts of the world undergoing modernization.