Books, books, books… please do stop this flood (Reading culture in the Czech Republic)

  • Jiří Trávníček Institute of Czech Literature of the Czech Academy of Sciences

Abstract

The text deals with Czech culture and readership, and is primarily concerned with its present condition. The topic is discussed in three perspectives – from the point of view of reading and readership, public libraries and from the point of view of the book market in the historical context since the end of the eighteenth century to the present. Czech reading culture is in a relatively stable state (of “stabilized instability”), although recently there has been a decrease in the number of visitors to public libraries.

The Czech publishing market is concentrated in Prague, albeit in all segments it functions smoothly. The number of those who have read at least one book in the last year (statistical readers) is quite high at 78% (according to a survey from 2018).

Author Biography

Jiří Trávníček, Institute of Czech Literature of the Czech Academy of Sciences

M.A.: deputy director for Brno branch, department for research into literary culture (Institute of Czech Literature of the Czech Academy of Sciences).

Published
2018-07-20
How to Cite
[1]
Trávníček, J. 2018. Books, books, books… please do stop this flood (Reading culture in the Czech Republic). Perspectives on Culture. 22, 3 (Jul. 2018), 9-20.
Section
Book