Reading Bohemia - Readership in the Czech Republic at the beginning of the 21th century

The book is based on a presentation of the main data from three statistical representative readership surveys conducted by the Institute of the Czech Literature (the Czech Academy of Sciences) and the National Library of the Czech Republic in 2007, 2010, and 2013. Czech readership culture is here monitored against a background of relevant information on the Czech Republic as a whole (e.g. demography, culture, education and the economy). However, the main section of this book is aimed at a wide spectrum of specific activities such as reading, digital reading, public library attendance, buying and acquiring books, and mass media activities. All these activities are interpreted by putting them into relevant contexts; at the same time, quantitative data are enlarged by qualitative findings. The book also contains a chapter comparing Czech reading culture with the situation abroad. Published in cooperation with the Institute of the Czech Literature.

Kniha vychází ze tří statistických výzkumů čtenářů a čtení, které v letech 2007, 2010 a 2013 zorganizovaly Ústav pro českou literaturu Akademie věd české republiky a Národní knihovna . Nejdříve jsou představeny základní údaje o České republice (demografie, kultura, vzdělání, ekonomika atd.), následují údaje z jednotlivých výzkumů. Ty se týkají čtení, digitálního čtení, toho, jak navštěvujeme veřejné knihovny, kolik knih si v průměru za rok kupujeme a jaký je náš vztah k jednotlivým médiím. Tuto kvantitativní část doplňují údaje části kvalitativní – volné výroky respondentů na téma čtení a knižního trhu. Publikaci uzavírá několik srovnání české čtenářské populace se situací v jiných zemích. – Vychází ve spolupráci s Ústavem pro českou literaturu Akademie věd české republiky

On the author

Jiří Trávníček (born 1960), a literary scholar by education and profession, he is a Deputy Director at the Institute of the Czech Literature – the Czech Academy of Sciences (full-time job) as well as a professor at the Faculty of Arts – Masaryk University, Brno (part-time job). He is an author or co-author of eight monographs dealing with modern Czech and Central European literature, hermenutics and interpretation, reading culture, and the book market. In cooperation with the National Library, he has also organized three representative statistical readership surveys of the Czech adult population (2007, 2010, 2013). Additionally, he works as an editor and literary critic. E-mail contact: travnicek@ucl.cas.cz