QUESTION OF THE DAY

Oleksandr STEHNIY, Candidate in history, analyst at the SOCIS Center for Social and Marketing Research:

Recently public taste in reading has changed drastically. The question is now not the frequency of reading but what exactly is read and how the literary market and mass culture are changing. I believe that public taste has undergone significant degradation. Evidence of this is the popularity of mysteries and novels struggling over the counters of bookstores and markets, which are not distinguished by any over plot. The Internet has also dampened teenagers’ desire to read, since it contains images in addition to texts that are always an attraction. This is why I believe that reading in the classical sense will soon become history. However, professional groups read and will continue to do so. And soon they might have to read even more because science is making great strides forward.

Valentyn LUKYANETS, Section Chairman, Institute of Philosophy, Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences:

I think that we have always been and still are readers; the need for reading did not disappear somewhere. It is only that our reduced circumstances and current social and economic reality prevents us from fully satisfying this need. It is clear that in the pursuit of our daily bread we have no time for pulp fiction. For scientists and scholars it is essential to read literature on their profession, thus they still read and fish for information. Fish is the word, because in addition to our complicated social medium, which does not accord us time to read, we have restricted access to information. In my view, people’s mentality has not changed. When the situation in the country gets better, people will start reading again.