KUCHING: Malaysians are reading more books now and this may be due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The National Library of Malaysia (PNM) recently reported that Malaysians were reading an average of 20 books a year this year compared to 15 books a year, or just over a book a month, in 2014.
Swinburne University of Technology lecturer, Dr Marc Weismann, 30, said the spike in reading might be due to the COVID-19 lockdown period.
He said students were trying to read books — whether enforced by curriculum or through learning support centres — as a way for them to accelerate their progress.
Dr Marc highlighted that while the figure could be true, the content and reading levels of readers had to be studied to determine the knowledge acquisition from books.
He stressed the need to see a respective improvement in reading application indicators, such as assessment outcomes and grade statistics.
Likewise, Nurul Huzaimah Hussien, 34, a lecturer from the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), pointed out that the increase might be a habit that people picked up during the height of COVID-19 quarantine and which was carried over to 2023.
“It could also be a deliberate move that people make after a few years of being overly participative online – people just crave alone time and reading is a good avenue for that,” she said.
She found the increasing number of readers, surprising but welcomed it.
Similarly, Ahmad Junaidi Ahmad Hadzmy, 32, also a lecturer from Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), was also surprised that Malaysians were reading more books.
He felt that the spike in reading could also be due to the cheaper prices of books at book fairs and also social media trends like showing off what you read and posting them online.
The spike could also be due to peer influence.
Another lecturer, Keezrawati Mujan Yusuf also from Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), said the increase was perhaps due to the accessibility to technology.
She added that from 2014 up to 2023, people were more inclined to read digital books than physical books.
“Perhaps this explains the rise of readers. If you include digital reading like online news articles, then I would say people read a lot more now,” she said.
