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The paper is part of a larger qualitative study of female Emirati university students' leisure reading habits and the purpose is to investigate the factors that have affected the reading habits of six respondents as they tell how they became avid readers.

Six students, who are very keen readers, were asked to write their stories of how they became readers, starting with their earliest memories of books and reading. Using open and axial coding through constant comparative analysis, the stories were analysed to allow categories and common themes to emerge.

Although each student's reading journey is a very personal, individual one, there are some common factors which have helped the students become the readers they are today. These include parental encouragement at an early age, particularly that of fathers, intervention by teachers who took an active interest in promoting reading, and the continuing effect of peers as they get older. Students' preference for owning the books, they read suggests the permanence of reading in their lives as they often like to reread books they have enjoyed. Unfortunately, studying at an English‐medium university has resulted in students reading fewer Arabic books than before.

For the first time, the voices of female Emirati freshmen in this paper challenge the myth that Arabs do not read, by showing how positive interventions by parents, educators and peers have helped shape the readers they are today. The paper serves as a reminder to educators to acknowledge the readers our students have become by accommodating and encouraging their extra‐curricular reading in both Arabic and English.

This paper presents a summary of international research in the field of family reading, a subject which refers both to the development of the literacy skills of family members, and to their shared process of reading.

It begins by defining the key terms in family reading, then introduces the research methods employed in research in this area.

Research specifically focusing on parents is presented, with particular reference to young parents and fathers in prison. The issue of intergenerational reading is also introduced, whereby (in this instance) the young and the elderly share experiences via reading. The final theme of the paper is that of families sharing reading for pleasure, and public reading events for families are described. The paper concludes with a series of barriers to family reading, and a suggested model of effective family reading, for families and communities in any country.

In a paper of this scale and length, it is impossible to give more than a limited perspective of international research on family reading, yet the author believes that sufficient examples are given – and the research methods sufficiently globally applicable – for the paper to be of theoretical and practical value to public and school librarians, and academics.

The paper collates and reflects on examples of international research and practice, whilst providing a solid framework of research methods in the area of family reading.

This is an exploratory study of reading behaviors and interest among students residing in a female residential college of Kolej Datin Seri Endon (KDSE), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and the use of reading stations (RS) placed at strategic locations throughout the main campus. The UTM's Vice Chancellor project of developing various RS was to promote a reading culture in UTM. Currently there are 48 RS in the main campus of Skudai and ten more in UTM International campus. Most of the books were donated by UTM staff and students themselves.

Using simple random sampling, 187 students were selected from a population of 1,300 female students. The survey instrument was designed in the form of structured questionnaire comprising a series of close‐ended and open‐ended questions design. A team of researcher investigated and evaluated at least 15 Reading Stations through out the campus.

The findings highlighted some factors related to reading habits and interest of students. The student's evaluation of the RS has been positive. Students however lamented that the books found at the RS are outdated, too academic and unrelated to their specific interest. This showed that even though the RS have been well received by students but it called for many areas of improvement in order for the RS to be of benefit and relevant to the campus community.

It is hoped that this study will stimulate further in‐depth studies and institutional budget allocation for training courses such as speed reading and mind mapping to inculcate a reading culture among students.

This is an original article on the reading habits of students in a certain college in UTM and the evaluation of RS, a newly launched project to promote reading culture among students.

Surveys factors affecting the reading habits of secondary school students in Ogbomoso State in Nigeria and discusses the results. Highlights the following inhibiting factors: the family background of students where few homes are conducive to reading owing to noise and lack of reading materials; the lack of functional libraries in most of the schools surveyed and a similar lack of trained librarians or teacher librarians; the failure to provide library periods in schools; language teachers and shortage of equipment and resources for teaching reading skills; and a heavy reliance on school texts, although students show willingness to read more broadly, e.g. newspapers and novels.

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the results of continuing professional development sessions delivered to academics on the importance of a properly annotated reading list to the student experience.

As part of the session, the academics were asked to take part in a “pop quiz” providing their interpretation of commonly used reading list labels.

There was quite a broad interpretation of the labels, with several eliciting strongly positive or negative reactions. The similarity of meanings between some reading list labels made them redundant for helping students to prioritise their reading.

This case study could be used to provide sessions on reading lists at other institutions, and the results from the quiz can be used to simplify reading list labels.

The purpose of this study is to explore gender differences in the online reading environment.

Survey and analysis methods are employed.

Survey results reveal that female readers have a stronger preference for paper as a reading medium than male readers, whereas male readers exhibit a greater degree of satisfaction with online reading than females. Additionally, males and females differ significantly on the dimension of selective reading and sustained attention.

Understanding gender differences would enable a better understanding of the changing reading behavior in the online environment, and to develop more effective digital reading devices. Factors affecting gender differences in the online reading environment are discussed, and directions for future research are suggested.

The purpose of this study was to establish reading practices among retirees and to what extent public libraries in Kenya are a source of information and knowledge to them.

This was a qualitative study whose research questions were; what are retirees' reading practices? why do retirees engage in the reading practices they engage in? and to what extent do retirees use the public library for their reading practices? Purposive and snowballing were used as sampling techniques and interview was used for data collection. Data were analysed thematically.

The findings were that retirees' reading practices are fragmentary and erratic; retirees mainly engage in reading practices for spiritual reasons and for access of current information; and that retirees do not use the services of the public library for their reading activities.

The research sample is 16 subjects who might not represent features of the whole population. The findings are, however, an index to what the situation might be.

The findings are the result of actual qualitative research.

The purpose of this paper is to clarify issues related to the contemporary study of audiobook practices, in order to aid subsequent research on topics related to reading, digital audiobooks and streaming subscription services.

Using the concept of remediation, this paper covers four messy issues for audiobook researchers, primarily by developing the concept of reading by listening and then exploring the different remediations of the audiobook, clarifying the audiobook as a book and exploring the context of streaming subscription services.

Reading is here conceptualised according to the human sense used when making meaning from text, with reading by listening suggested for reading done with the help of the ears. Three different forms of remediation can be seen in subscription-based audiobooks, related to format, content and sense. Audiobooks simultaneously follow traditions of reading aloud, remediates the printed book and previous audiobook formats. It is suggested that the content is what makes an audiobook a book. The concepts library model and bookshop model are introduced to understand different audiobook subscription service models.

This is a research area on the rise with several messy issues and the concepts and clarifications in this paper may benefit future research.

The present study focused on examining the effects of a multimedia-based Internet extensive reading program on promoting the receptive skills of Iranian university students.

In the quantitative section of this explanatory sequential mixed-method study, a pretest-posttest design was used to compare the performance of three groups of Iranian university students in terms of their degrees of improvement in receptive proficiency. Besides, the differences in the levels of motivation among the learners were sought. The three classes under study included linear text extensive reading for the first experimental group, a multimedia-based Internet extensive reading group for the other and a control group. The qualitative phase of this study included a semi-structured interview and an open-ended questionnaire.

Analysis of the results revealed that the multimedia-based Internet extensive reading group outperformed the two other groups in terms of proficiency in receptive skills. They also had a higher level of motivation for reading. The findings of the qualitative phase showed that the participants preferred working with multimedia material rather than working with linear texts, or, in other words, printed books. University EFL instructors may be the most beneficiaries of the present study, as they can gain insights into applying Internet-based extensive reading programs into their courses.

Although some studies have been carried out in this area, the paper provides its readers with a new procedure and methodology.

This paper aims to focus on how reading for pleasure is transmitted within the family. Using data taken from the Programme for International Student Assessment test of 2009, which dealt in depth with the reading proficiency of students, the authors show that children of parents who read for pleasure are better readers. Within the extensive research and published results on reading performance, the authors focused on the transmission of parents’ reading attitudes to their children.

In this study, the authors have opted for an approach of “difference in differences”, applied to a population that represents all 15-year-olds from five countries (Germany, Denmark, Hungary, Italy and Portugal). To support this study, the authors chose as a response variable the difference between reading performance and maths performance of each student, taking into account five plausible values for each student. The authors have several explanatory variables, among them what we call the “treatment”, which is the parents’ enthusiasm for reading.

The calculated estimations clearly indicate that there is a positive effect for four out of the five countries analysed, ranging from 4 points for Italy to 6.5 points for Germany and Portugal. As for the significance of the effect, with the exception of Hungary, the result is reliable and robust. It should also be noted that the variable that indicates the existence of a reading habit by children (daily reading for pleasure) is seen as a factor that positively affects the difference between competence in reading and mathematics in four out of the five countries analysed.

The results show positive effects on children whose parents read for pleasure, and this fact should be used to further encourage parents to promote their own reading time for pleasure. In view of the already quantified trend in international reports that adults are reading less, it seems crucial to involve educational authorities in reversing this phenomenon, knowing the impact that adult reading habits have on the reading competence of young people.