How Does Your Country Rank in Weekly Reading Time?

Have you ever wondered which countries around the world spend the most time reading?


India leads the list with citizens of the country spending an average of 10.42 hours a week reading per person, according to the NOP World Culture Score Index. Thailand was a close second with 9.24 hours spent reading each week. China came in third with 8 hours a week spent reading.

The U.S. came in No. 22 on the list with the average time spent reading per week per person clocking in at 5 hours and 42 minutes.

Ashu, a second-grader living in Mumbai, peruses a book.

(Robert Marquand)

Writer Charlie Jane Anders discussed the new data in her column titled "Does anybody read books the right way anymore?," noting that adults sitting down on the sofa with a title and poring over it for hours is less and less common.
"We've never had more distractions keeping us from focusing totally on a book as we have today," Anders wrote. "...Now that we read on e-readers and phones, do we tend to read a few minutes at a time, instead of sitting in a chair for an hour or two?"
Anders noted that reading in short bursts mean we get less immersed in a story
Hours reading per week per person

1. India — 10 hours, 42 minutes

2. Thailand — 9:24

3. China — 8:00

4. Philippines — 7:36

5. Egypt — 7:30

6. Czech Republic — 7:24

7. Russia — 7:06

8. Sweden — 6:54

8. France — 6:54

10. Hungary — 6:48

10. Saudi Arabia — 6:48

12. Hong Kong — 6:42

13. Poland — 6:30

14. Venezuela — 6:24

15. South Africa — 6:18

15. Australia — 6:18

17. Indonesia — 6:00

18. Argentina — 5:54

18. Turkey — 5:54

20. Spain — 5:48

20. Canada — 5:48

22. Germany — 5:42

22. USA — 5:42

24. Italy — 5:36

25. Mexico — 5:30

26. U.K. — 5:18

27. Brazil — 5:12

28. Taiwan — 5:00

29. Japan — 4:06

30. Korea — 3:06

For International Girl Child Day-Collaborative Children's Book Written and Illustrated by Women

 In two days, five authors, four illustrators, three translators — all women have written what might just be, India's fastest collaborative children's book, ever.

In celebration of International Girl Child Day (September 24), Pratham Books invited four authors (all of them women) to write a book in just two days.

Pratham Books is a not-for-profit organization that publishes affordable children’s books in multiple Indian languages.

The story was to revolve around a girl protagonist. The authors typed their stories into an online collaborative document which had been shared among the participating authors, illustrators, and translators. This document had, in turn, been embedded into their new website. To showcase it live, they used auto-refresh in Javascript. Therefore, the entire scenario was pretty much “live”.

To be true to Pratham Books' essence, the story had to be multilingual – so they got it translated in Hindi, Kannada and Marathi too.  Since the translators could also see the story online they could start their translations as soon as the story came up.  The illustrations were uploaded live too, as work in progress.

This is how it worked.

On September 22, Roopa Pai started the author marathon.  Subhadra Sengupta and Anita Vachharajani continued the author marathon the next two days. Mala Kumar concludes the author marathon on September 23.

The story created over the two-day period was used in storytelling sessions across the country on September 24 for  International Girl Child Day.

Pratham Books’ Champions (storytelling volunteers) will also conduct sessions at orphanages, government schools, community libraries across the country including Bangalore.

So far they have had about 18 volunteers sign up for this from different parts of the country — Nagaland, Coimbatore, Bangalore, Chennai, Goa, Vadodara, Delhi, Bhopal and others.

 Suzanne Singh, managing trustee, Pratham Books says, “We hope that many girls can be inspired by the work of the wonderful women authors and the story that we create. We believe every child, girl or boy, should have a childhood full of good books that open windows to the world. That is why we publish the books in so many languages and also allow free downloads of many of our books.”

Visitors From All Over This Orb

I feel so blessed.  Many people from numerous countries have found their way to this blog.  I am grateful and humble as well. 

Earth Fron Space
(NASA Flat Map)

While I don't know who you are, I do know from which countries you come.  And you are from everywhere.  Argentina to Belarus to the Czech Republic to India to Malaysia to Russia to the United Kingdom and so many other countries are represented. Welcome to this blog!

We are a small neighborhood, this village Earth.  We must be a caring community, where needs are met and people are valued, no matter their race, religion or gender.

Why can't this happen?  It is such a simple concept. 

The reality, of course, is a different matter--complex, multifaceted and fraught with borders and protectionism.  I know that. 

But as I receive statistics showing the myriad places from which readers come, I am heartened.  Why?  Because we are all human, most of us with the requisite amount of goodness it takes to make our home a habitable, safe place once again.  And if we all, or at least some of us try, we surely will succeed.