Penuntut yang akan melanjutkan pelajaran ke negara matahari terbit itu boleh mengambil contoh budaya belajar di kalangan orang Jepun yang sentiasa membaca walau di mana mereka berada.

Malaysians still not reading enough, says Muhyiddin

KUALA LUMPUR: Although Malaysia has among the highest literacy rates in South-East Asia, Malaysians prefer light reading material like newspapers and magazines to books.

According to literacy statistics, out of 85% of Malaysians who read regularly, 77% of them prefer newspapers, 3% read magazines, 3% read books and 1.6% read comics.

“If we were to compare with American citizens, 53% of them read fiction and 43% of them read non-fiction books.

“Malaysians are more inclined to read light material while citizens from developed countries read books,” Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said at the launch of the Kuala Lumpur International Book Fair 2009 at the Putra World Trade Centre yesterday.

The text of his speech was read out by Deputy Education Minister Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong.

The UN Development Programme’s 2007/2008 report said the literacy rate of Malaysians, at 93.2%, was behind developed countries like Japan, Britain, the United States, Australia and Germany, which have literacy rates of 99%.

“We still have room for improvement in terms of increasing the literacy rate to 99% by 2020 and the quality of material that we read. Parents play an important role in nurturing the reading habit among their children.

“Students should read more books, not just revision books or textbooks for examinations,” he said.

The organiser of the book fair has targeted 2.5 million visitors this year. Last year, 2.2 million people visited the book fair compared with 700,000 in 2006.

Muyhiddin also said that more bookstores should be opened in the country. Currently, 45% of bookstores are in the Klang Valley, 20% in Penang and Perak, while Johor has 10%.

Book fair organiser Datuk Ivan Hoe said Malaysians thought twice about spending money on books but not on food.

“They forget that books are intellectual food,” he said.

Here goes my question: WHY?

In today's paper: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=...5792&sec=nation

i love to read. and i am malaysian. coz my parent are teachers. so they told me to read anywhere and any time. even if u r in bathroom.
u can see all most every inch of my house will have books.
while my sister and bro still a kid, u WILL found book even under my mom closest. right around every layer of her clothes. my sister hid it from me and my mom didnt even know unless she did tidy her closest.

one more thing, malaysia story not so good.

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Added on April 25, 2009, 8:34 pm

malaysia dont have good/ motivation story to sold. so reader can read they plot. what use to read if u can predict the story or content?

easy lor.. coz in japan, if u not reading something u will look like idiot..... but if u read in train [m'sia] u look like nerd

As for me, I like to read but the problem is there is not a single shop here in Langkawi that provide me with the kind of books that I want to read. I love the "Linux for You" magazine but the one and only shop in Langkawi that previously have the book had already stop bringing it. Reason - Not many people buy it so they stop selling it.

The only time I got the opportunity to buy the magazine is when my company send me to KL for a business trip so I will definitely buy the magazine at KLIA.

Those living in KL are very fortunate since there are many quality book shops there i.e. Kinokuniya (my favourite), MPH etc. You see, sometimes there are people who likes to read and would buy books/magazines for reading but are discourage since there are not enough quality book shop at their neighborhood.

books are still considered expensive if compared to other countries...
eg, a good book cost less than $10 in overseas while in msia, it will cost at least $30...don't compare by the exchange rate, compare by the value
u work and earn overseas, buying books is consider cheap
in malaysia, books are expensive

Because japanese read japanese books as they have high japanese proficiency.

As for Malaysians, Chinese-eds chinese half half, Malay-eds Malay half half, and they all also English half half.

just kidding la, my friends and I read a lot. And i always see people reading in the LRT ==

Lol, it was just last month I came back to M'sia for holidays and I recall complaining to my mum on me seeing tons and tons of fashion stores and hardly any bookstores in either a single area or a mall.