Abstract The aim of this study is to investigate attitudes to leisure-time reading among pupils in grade 5. A subsidiary aim is to examine whether there is a difference between how boys and girls relate to reading books. The method used in the study is questionnaires and a focus group interview. The result shows a clear difference between boys’ and girls’ reading habits in leisure time. The girls devote more time in general than the boys to leisure-time reading, but sports activities and the computer are two phenomena that the pupils choose in preference to reading. In the study one can see a link between reading literature relatively frequently in leisure time and having a positive attitude to reading in school, which applies to both sexes. The pupils who seldom or never read in their leisure time are also more negatively disposed to reading in school, which applies chiefly to the boys.