The purpose of this study is to examine teenagers perceptions of the phenomena reading, for example perceptions of reading as an activity and young people’s reading, in order to assess how reading can be understood from their point of view.  This essay presents one concept of value – the definition of teenagers – and since the setting of the study is Swedish, the context of the research presents young people’s reading from a Swedish point of view followed up by international research with the same focus upon young people and/or young people’s reading, apart from reading as a concept. The research material consists of semistructured interviews with six teenagers, all six between the age of 16 and 18 years. The study is qualitative and phenomenographic, where the theory foremost provides an analytic model to present the result. The result shows that teenagers perceptions of reading is, in first hand associated with being seen as fiction and printed books, and in second hand so much more. The perceptions of reading is in one way dependent on how they see reading as an activity, where they value themselves as readers, and their own reading, according to their view on what reading is. Reading is percepted as foremost inividual, where digital reading and specifically reading taking place on social media, is the general common reading among young people. The conclusion is that young people’s reading foremost can be understood as individual.

Young people’s reading comprehension is deteriorating, and their reading habits are declining. Librarians are given a mission to promote reading, where young people are a priority target group. To render this mission more effective, librarians’ views on this problem and how they try to tackle should be studied. The purpose of this thesis is to identify (i)librarians’ approach to young people’s reading, and(ii) how they describe and experience reading promotion work for the target group through semi-structured interviews with six professional children and youth librarians. Given the gender gap in reading comprehension in favor of girls, this thesis devotes extra attention to this issue in the interviews with the librarians. Interviewees mention (i) lack of interest, (ii) lack of role models at home, (iii) gender stereotypes, and (iv)socioeconomic background as major factors causing this gap. Moreover, majority of the participants believe that young people should read what they want to read according to their interests. That is, the emancipatory approach is dominant in the reading promotion work of the interviewees conducted, but other approaches are also visible in their work. This is in line with research within psychology and pedagogy on reading promotion. I also report that librarians’ strategies and approaches to reading are important especially for young people with low reading motivation. Finally, informants describe changing negative reading attitudes among adolescents a major challenge. Yet, they find it fun to work with adolescents. They suggest preventive measures such as building a reading culture early in life.