How many books do you read these days? Do you know the best seller of this month?
Adult̓s annual reading volume showed low figure at one survey, but several businesses and services that encourage you to read books exist. You can now easily find books around you without going typical place to read such as library. The Argus looked into how books come closer to our daily life.

In March 2016, a new semester started again. When universities begin, students are accustomed to habitually making plans, and continuing or increasing their volume of reading is often listed as a part of those plans. Even if you are not a student or do not make a plan, you might think, “I should read books,” at least once. Various factors that encourage reading are prevalent in our lives these days. Let us find out more about a new reading trend that is approaching us.

New reading trend

Books and equipment are supplied in the spaces which are close to the daily lives of people. There is a new reading trend that fosters an environment of reading and is receiving favorable responses.

Dokseobaram train

The Dokseobaram train, which means a train that encourages people to read, has been running full-scale since February after its opening ceremony, which was held on Jan. 30. The City of Paju, Korail, the Publication Industry Promotion Agency of Korea (KPIPA) and some additional societies cooperated to establish the special train that encourages the growing rate of reading. If you pay general rail fares, you can take the train. Excluding rush hours, the train runs four times a day, which was its existing schedule. There is a natural reading environment offered on this train that people routinely use. It seems that the train will encourage passengers’ interest in reading by providing books and a reading environment and will contribute to create the culture of reading books while taking train. According to the Reading Promotion Department of KPIPA, about 300 people have been using the Dokseobaram train every day, and Paju and the other organizations are planning to add one more train later on when they secure necessary funding.

Huge pine desk at the Kyobo Book Centre

Gwanghwa-mun Kyobo Book Centre uncased huge desks made out of Kauri pine that lived about fifty thousand years ago in November 2015 after some remodeling work. Each desk accommodates almost 100 people reading books at the same time, and the Gwanghwa-mun Kyobo Book Centre installed two of them. Kyobo Book Centre officials said, “We decided to arrange desks to provide the cultural complex where customers can read books comfortably and experience various cultures.”  The remodeling, which seemed like a move, allowed the centre to try to secure a long-term reading population by providing reading spaces to customers. This change provided customers with an open space that encouraged the opportunity to read. 

Libraries in the cinemas

A reading space named Cine Library opened at Myeong-dong Station CGV last year. The library, created by re-fashioning one existing theater out of six, has desks, chairs and sofas for reading books comfortably. This new space created an environment where people can read books while providing a lot of books will help the readers in understanding of the films. There is also a book lounge at the Sangbong Station Megabox. The book lounge has bookshelves on one side and stair chairs, so people can sit as reading books. Cinema audiences are now given the possibility to come by the library to read books before and after watching movies. The cinema is arousing the interest of the audience in books and encouraging reading by changing their cultural space from one in which we can only enjoy films to a new cultural space where we can encounter books as well.

How did the new reading trend begin?

Busy life of modern people

Contemporary people are often not able to make time for reading as they are being swayed by their busy lives these days. However, many facilities and services are being created. These are encouraging people to read books in their daily lives. For example, people can read various books when they take a subway or visit theater to watch a movie. These facilities help people to read by having books and reading spaces easily accessible to people̓s daily lives. When a reading environment is easily accessible in daily life, it makes people more concerned about books and implants within them a will to read by naturally approaching their lives.

Return to analog

Recently, a return to analog forms from digital ones has become an important cultural trend. For example, people who have more affection for paper books than Internet media and are again looking for paper books still exist. In spite of the advent of e-books, many people prefer paper books to e-books for several personal reasons. The Argus interviewed two people who prefer paper books to e-books.

“I like paper books because I have a strong attachment to the texture of paper books which I cannot feel with e-books. It is more comfortable and natural to read a paper book than an e-book. E-books are easy to possess, but make me tired easily when I read them,” said a female college student. Another female teacher also said, “Paper books are comfortable to read and I love the feeling of turning pages. I also like the analog sensibility. These are why I prefer paper books to e-books. Reading e-books does not make me feel that I am reading a ‘book’ and feels like reading documents for work. Besides, they make my eyes tired.”

Influence and limit

The new reading culture is changing people’s daily lives. People who used to only look at their smart phones while taking a train have started to read the books they find on the train. They are also moving from simply visiting bookstores to enjoying reading with strangers in the bookstore. Some people who usually go to the cinema to watch movies are starting to read the originating books before and after viewing films.

The influence of the new reading trend is not yet that large. There are fewer daily lives that have been changed than those that have not changed, and there is also a question of whether the influence of the reading trend can spread or not. Furthermore, there is a concern that only people who used to read books are going to use the newly provided services. According to the result of the 2015 National Reading Realities Survey from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the average reading rate of adults was 65.3 percent, which was the lowest record since the survey started in 1994. It remains to be seen whether the new reading trend can resolve those difficult situations in the future.

According to the survey, the yearly reading volume is 70.3, 19.4, 8.9, and 9.1 books for elementary school students, middle school students, high school students, and adults, respectively. We can see that people are becoming alienated from books by watching the decrease in reading volume as people become older. Their will to read, which is represented by the reading plan that often appears in their plans, is easily bent by reality.

The new reading culture facilities help people who have their minds set on reading to read books in their daily lives. The hearts which desire to read and the movies that encourage the reading of books meet in this way, and they are creating the new reading culture that directly enters a person̓s life even if they do not make time for reading.