You heard that right, my fellow citizens — many of you couldn’t muster the strength to read more than the title of this article, but most of you, apparently, read an average of 24 books a year, or two books a month.
I can’t believe that I’m below average in this category. You would think a writer who writes tens, if not hundreds, of articles a month — and who has even written a book — would be reading at least 48 books a year when the national average is 24. But think again.
I can’t think of a single book I’ve read this year, but all of you, it seems, read one every other week.
Unbelievable.
In my heart and mind, I’m having as much trouble believing this as I would in believing that there’s a dragon living happily in the waters of Tasik Chini. But what can I do — this is what the official records say, so it must be true.
If the official records say that people with names like Gabriel Felipe Arrocha, Facundo Garces, Rodrigo Holgado, Imanol Machuca, Joao Figueiredo, Jon Irazabal and Hector Hevel — who don’t look, sound, or seem remotely Malaysian — are indeed bone fide Malaysians capable of representing the country at the highest level of football, or that Malaysians are such a happy people that we could give the population of heaven a run for their money, then who am I to argue when it also says that the average Malaysian reads 24 books a year?
You know what bugs me though - it is that this entire info is making me suspect that our election system is rigged.
You know why?
Well, it is because in a democracy, voters elect those who they can identify with.
If 90 percent of us are active readers, who are most people we elect look and sound like people see books the way that Superman sees kryptonite?
If it is true that 90 percent of us are active readers, how else do you explain the composition of the parliament?
Anyway, according to National Unity Minister Aaron Ago Dagang, efforts to instil a reading culture among Malaysians have apparently shown results. The Reading Profile Study recorded a significant jump in reading habits over the years.
“In 2005, the average citizen read only two books a year. Ten years later, the number jumped to 15 books, and in 2023 it increased again to 24 books per year,” Aaron said, as reported by Bernama.
Malaysians, it seems, are a very contrarian people, who do the exact opposite of our condition. In 2005, when all that most of us had was Astro and dial up internet, we only read 2 books a year.
But as our broadband speed picked up and we had a plethora of options - from YouTube to TikTok to Twitter and Facebook - we decided to go against the grain and start picking a good old fashioned book instead.
But I digress. Let us go back to what the officials are saying.
Anyway, Of that number, 16 were physical books, while the other eight were read online. Aaron added that 88.6% of Malaysians are now active readers — a “proud achievement” that demonstrates the success of government initiatives to strengthen the nation’s “knowledge ecosystem.”
To support this growing reading culture, the government has launched the one-stop digital platform u-Pustaka under the National Library of Malaysia (PNM). The platform offers over a million online reading materials — from e-books and magazines to journals and audiobooks — all free to the public.
Through u-Pustaka, Malaysians can access 22 digital databases, including Overdrive, Alkem Digital Library, Mason Crest, Emerald eBook, JGate, Lawnet, Odilo and MyGuru — all designed to make Malaysia a “comprehensive, inclusive and easily accessible virtual knowledge store.”
So, there you have it. We are officially a nation of bookworms — hyper-literate citizens quietly flipping pages in between scrolling TikTok, binge-watching Netflix, and arguing about politics on Facebook.
If only sarcasm counted as reading material, I might actually be ahead of the curve.
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