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The purpose of this study was to find the type of stories in which the children in the first and second grades were most interested. The writer wanted to determine whether or not there was a preference for fantastic or realistic stories in these grades, whether or not boys preferred one type of stories and girls another, and whether or not age and intelligence entered in as determining factors.

The problem of this study is the identification of differences in reading interests and preferences of Indian, Black, and white adolescents of both sexes and from different high school grade levels as they are related to (a) educational background of the parents, (b) availability of reading materials, (c) community size, and (d) the extent to which these preferences are represented in the standard selection aids for secondary school reading materials. A reading interest inventory was administered in the fall term, 1972, through English classes in twenty integrated schools in Oklahoma, representing three levels of population concentration. Community resources in reading materials available through school libraries, public libraries, and bookstores were evaluated. The reading inventories of 3,581 students were chosen to be evaluated to determine if there were significant differences at the .05 level. Earlier studies have indicated that sex and age are major factors in determining what teenagers read about and that adolescents' reading interests tended to be unique, personal, and very unpredictable.- Few studies have been reported that involved ethnic origin or family levels of education.

The act of reading has benefits for individuals and societies, yet studies show that reading declines, especially among the young. Recommender systems (RSs) can help stop such decline. There is a lot of research regarding literary books using natural language processing (NLP) methods, but the analysis of textual book content to improve recommendations is relatively rare. We propose content-based recommender systems that extract elements learned from book texts to predict readers’ future interests. One factor that influences reading preferences is writing style; we propose a system that recommends books after learning their authors’ writing style. To our knowledge, this is the first work that transfers the information learned by an author-identification model to a book RS. Another approach that we propose uses over a hundred lexical, syntactic, stylometric, and fiction-based features that might play a role in generating high-quality book recommendations. Previous book RSs include very few stylometric features; hence, our study is the first to include and analyze a wide variety of textual elements for book recommendations. We evaluated both approaches according to a top-k recommendation scenario. They give better accuracy when compared with state-of-the-art content and collaborative filtering methods. We highlight the significant factors that contributed to the accuracy of the recommendations using a forest of randomized regression trees. We also conducted a qualitative analysis by checking if similar books/authors were annotated similarly by experts. Our content-based systems suffer from the new user problem, well-known in the field of RSs, that hinders their ability to make accurate recommendations. Therefore, we propose a Topic Model-Based book recommendation component (TMB) that addresses the issue by using the topics learned from a user’s shared text on social media, to recognize their interests and map them to related books. To our knowledge, there is no literature regarding book RSs that exploits public social networks other than book-cataloging websites. Using topic modeling techniques, extracting user interests can be automatic and dynamic, without the need to search for predefined concepts. Though TMB is designed to complement other systems, we evaluated it against a traditional book CB. We assessed the top k recommendations made by TMB and CB and found that both retrieved a comparable number of books, even though CB relied on users’ rating history, while TMB only required their social profiles.

This study proposed to develop a list of aviation books that experienced pilots consider inspirational and motivational which could be used in an aviation literature course in adult education. Survey results showed the subject pilots had a positive attitude toward reading and flying, but there was little correlation (r = .35) between the two. This suggests that something else influenced the reading of the sample books. The pilot resondents suggested 269 books for use in a course. This book list will need additional refining and syntopical sorting before use as a canon in an aviation education course.

In 1996 Francois Bloemhof's teenage fiction, Slinger-slinger, was a prize-winner in the beginners' category of the Sanlam competition for fiction for youth. The book was acclaimed because of the open manner in which the author wrote about sensitive themes such as hetero- and homosexuality, promiscuity, divorce, incest, tense family relationships, and drug and alcohol abuse. The main theme of Slinger-slinger is teenage sexual aspects, such as the sexual awakening and identity of teenagers. In 1998 a sensation was caused in the media as upset parents, teachers and other adults protested against the inclusion of Slinger-slinger in the ATKV's Children's Book Award, category 13-15 years of age. Two conflicting opinions about Slingerslinger could be distinguished: one group was of the opinion that the sexual theme and strong language were not suited for teenage fiction, while the other group was of the opinion that teenagers needed to read about realistic themes to prepare them for the real world. No comments were published about the opinions of the supposed readers, namely teenagers. Steenberg (1988:168-172), Van der Westhuizen (1989:5-7) and Van Zyl (1990:17) wrote that teenagers read to fulfil their needs. Teenagers' reading needs are directly connected to their emotional, cognitive and physical developmental stages. The aim of the study The aim of this study is firstly to evaluate Slinger-slinger according to the elements of the reader study model to determine whether it addresses the reading needs and interests of teenage readers; and secondly to ascertain whether teenagers liked Slinger-slinger. Research procedures and methodology A study of the literature was done in order to determine the reading needs and developmental tasks of teenagers, and the role that teenage fiction can play in their development to adulthood. Together with this background study, an evaluation model, containing story elements viewed from a reader study perspective, as well as criteria for the evaluation of the handling of sexual aspects in teenage fiction, was developed to determine whether Slinger-slinger is successful teenage fiction. In the empirical study the above-mentioned evaluation model for teenage fiction were applied to Slinger-slinger. In the second part of the empirical study a questionnaire was compiled to obtain the opinions of teenage readers about the success of Slinger-slinger as a whole, as well as the success of the handling of the sexual aspects. The questionnaire also served to obtain information about the reading needs of teenage readers in regard to realistic teenage fiction and teenage fiction with a sexual theme. Conclusion It is concluded that Francois Bloemhof's Slinger-slinger succeeds as realistic teenage fiction because it answers to the reading needs of teenage readers. Bloemhof succeeded in his handling of the sexual aspects in Slinger-slinger an in doing so fulfils teenager's reading and information needs, and thus assists them on their way to maturity. The questionnaire ascertained that the teenage readers who participated in the study were of the opinion that Slinger-slinger is a successful and interesting teenage book, and that they would like to read more realistic Afrikaans teenage fiction such as Slinger-slinger. / Thesis (M.Bibl.)--Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2002.

In 1996 Francois Bloemhof's teenage fiction, Slinger-slinger, was a prize-winner in the beginners' category of the Sanlam competition for fiction for youth. The book was acclaimed because of the open manner in which the author wrote about sensitive themes such as hetero- and homosexuality, promiscuity, divorce, incest, tense family relationships, and drug and alcohol abuse. The main theme of Slinger-slinger is teenage sexual aspects, such as the sexual awakening and identity of teenagers. In 1998 a sensation was caused in the media as upset parents, teachers and other adults protested against the inclusion of Slinger-slinger in the ATKV's Children's Book Award, category 13-15 years of age. Two conflicting opinions about Slingerslinger could be distinguished: one group was of the opinion that the sexual theme and strong language were not suited for teenage fiction, while the other group was of the opinion that teenagers needed to read about realistic themes to prepare them for the real world. No comments were published about the opinions of the supposed readers, namely teenagers. Steenberg (1988:168-172), Van der Westhuizen (1989:5-7) and Van Zyl (1990:17) wrote that teenagers read to fulfil their needs. Teenagers' reading needs are directly connected to their emotional, cognitive and physical developmental stages. The aim of the study The aim of this study is firstly to evaluate Slinger-slinger according to the elements of the reader study model to determine whether it addresses the reading needs and interests of teenage readers; and secondly to ascertain whether teenagers liked Slinger-slinger. Research procedures and methodology A study of the literature was done in order to determine the reading needs and developmental tasks of teenagers, and the role that teenage fiction can play in their development to adulthood. Together with this background study, an evaluation model, containing story elements viewed from a reader study perspective, as well as criteria for the evaluation of the handling of sexual aspects in teenage fiction, was developed to determine whether Slinger-slinger is successful teenage fiction. In the empirical study the above-mentioned evaluation model for teenage fiction were applied to Slinger-slinger. In the second part of the empirical study a questionnaire was compiled to obtain the opinions of teenage readers about the success of Slinger-slinger as a whole, as well as the success of the handling of the sexual aspects. The questionnaire also served to obtain information about the reading needs of teenage readers in regard to realistic teenage fiction and teenage fiction with a sexual theme. Conclusion It is concluded that Francois Bloemhof's Slinger-slinger succeeds as realistic teenage fiction because it answers to the reading needs of teenage readers. Bloemhof succeeded in his handling of the sexual aspects in Slinger-slinger an in doing so fulfils teenager's reading and information needs, and thus assists them on their way to maturity. The questionnaire ascertained that the teenage readers who participated in the study were of the opinion that Slinger-slinger is a successful and interesting teenage book, and that they would like to read more realistic Afrikaans teenage fiction such as Slinger-slinger. / Thesis (M.Bibl.)--Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2002.

As digital reading has become ubiquitous in society it is reasonable to expect it in schools. Digital reading has not been without its controversies though. Using a sociocultural perspective this thesis examines attitudes, perceptions, and access to digital books among Swedish upper secondary school pupils, focusing on e-books. Through a survey study involving 308 participants, the research addresses two key questions: what are the attitudes of upper secondary school pupils towards e-books in general and within the school context? And, to what extent do Swedish upper secondary schools provide access to e-books? Adopting a sociocultural perspective, the study emphasises the influence of cultural experiences on individuals.  Employing a mixed-methods approach, the study combines quantitative and qualitative data, gathering official statistics and employing cluster sampling. The survey results revealed diverse attitudes and practices towards digital reading among pupils, with a minority preferring e-books. Frequent readers exhibited lower interest in alternatives to printed books, and choice of reading device influences e-book reception. Despite a strong preference for traditional printed books rooted in cultural values, a majority supports e-book use in schools, acknowledging their practical benefits in education. However, access to e-books in schools remains limited, indicating a need for schools to address the challenges of digital reading. The thesis emphasises varying pupil attitudes towards e-books, influenced by sociocultural factors, and underscores the need for a nuanced approach to integrating digital reading in educational settings.

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