Monday, February 18, 2008

Data Initiative Snapshots | Reading

Books, of course, are essential to knowledge transmission, and for creating a broader conversation within a society. They may be hyped, but bestsellers such as Freakonomics or Wisdom of Crowds disseminate new ideas that enrich our understanding of the world. So it is interesting to follow up reading as an essential cultural practice. We asked the question in the Data Initiative 2007: did you read a book in the last six months? And here the results:
Armenia, clearly, reads most. It would be interesting to follow up reasons for this (and we will do a few crosstabs for future posts). One explanation for the prevalence of reading is that Russian is still very popular. If you just read in local language, the offerings are quickly exhausted and The Tipping Point is unlikely to be on your reading list anytime soon.

This is not just an arcane point: the societies still live in a sort of information vacuum, and breaking this will be essential to economic, social and political development.
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1 comment:

  1. Tom Sloan11:16 PM

    Thanks for asking this interesting question. With a 99% literacy rate, Armenians certainly have the skills to be a nation of readers. It would be interesting to know where the book(s) was obtained (e.g., school, library, bookstore, Yerevan’s Vernisage, etc.). In the USA, we have an expression that we are nation of literate illiterates (i.e., we can read, but don't). Best wishes, Tom Sloan

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