Reading Habits and Library Use Among Young Adults

Abstract

This study investigates the reading and library habits among teenagers in Oslo, Norway using qualitative interviews and a survey. Interviews with four girls demonstrate individual variation in their literary tastes and in the roles of reading they take on. The survey gives an overview of teenagers' library use and their literature preferences, and detects that girls and boys differ in preferences of reading media. Differences in literary tastes are also shown as gender-based. The survey indicates different patterns in reading frequency and reading materials in the sense that students from the schools with the closest connection to the public library read more, as well as in a broader range of reading materials than students from schools with no such connection.