Essay About Reading Habits

Tun Dr. Mahathir (1998) “Malaysians only read an average of two books a year, which is considered low,". According to Oxford Dictionary, read means a period or act of reading something and it involves many complex skills such as the ability to perceive printed words, to skim for information and then perhaps read intensively. Do you still remember NILAM during the schooldays? NILAM stands for ‘Nadi Ilmu Amalan Membaca’ (Reading as the Pulse of Knowledge). NILAM is a government program to encourage students to record the books they have read. The first requires a reading record, where students write the necessary details of the book read, a short synopsis of the book and valuable lessons learned. The second level is recognition. Based on the number of books read, the students are awarded a particular NILAM status: bronze, silver, gold and the pinnacle NILAM. Back to what Tun Dr. Mahathir have said, the reading habit in Malaysia is worrying. There are few factors that that make people refuse

Lastly, reading culture in Malaysia give impact to reading habit among Malaysians. [From UMS’s statistic majority respondents spent only spent 1 to 2 hours per day but in research done by IIUM majority spent 4-6 and 7-9 hours per week on reading]. Malaysians do not spend much time on reading. Also, the pattern of readers were influenced by the ethnicity, language used as well as an educational background. Some Malaysians prefer to listening and chatting more than reading. Malaysians are used to the environment reading in quiet such as in the library. So, people might think that reading in public is something unacceptable. Moreover, there a lot of negative perceptions towards people who reading in public which is the situations are very common in Japan. Ones who read in public is said to show off and people who love to read is said to be anti-social because these people spend most of the time reading rather than talking. This perception will affect the reading culture in