Deputy Minister of Culture of Ukraine Bohdana Laiuk has said that achieving an indicator where every Ukrainian reads at least one book per year is impossible, but it is necessary to work on the presence of books in all life spaces of Ukrainians.
"We have just completed a qualitative reading study to understand how to attract new readers to books. And this is only the first stage. The second stage will be a large-scale national quantitative study. We want to cover all regions of Ukraine, settlements of different sizes, and find out what, how, and how much Ukrainians read. Therefore, I hope that soon we will have fresh and up-to-date data that will give us an answer to this question from a quantitative point of view. When talking about how much one needs to read, I do not have an answer to this question," Laiuk said in an exclusive interview with the Interfax-Ukraine agency, answering a question about the desired level of involvement of Ukrainians in reading.
In her opinion, everything depends on how a person reads, and whether they do it qualitatively, that is, whether they get pleasure, information, or emotions from reading, regardless of the number of books.
"I think that under different circumstances, reading practices vary greatly among different Ukrainians. But everything depends on whether a book brings pleasure to their lives," she added.
Answering the question of whether it is possible to achieve an indicator where every Ukrainian reads at least one book per year, the deputy minister noted that in her opinion, it is impossible.
"I think not. We cannot make it so that everyone reads, I don’t know, the latest novel by Illarion Pavliuk. Although would we want this? Of course we would. Because it is a great detective story: a good plot, it entertains and at the same time allows one to think about important things. Therefore, I would think not in categories of total coverage, but rather the presence of a book in the life of a Ukrainian in all their spaces," Laiuk stated.
She noted that the mentioned study showed that one of the main obstacles for readers is that the book as such is far from being present in all our public spaces, and this is what needs to be changed.
"Because the presence of a book, just like the presence of food or cosmetics advertising, affects our perception. We begin to consider it something familiar, and therefore – something worth interacting with," the deputy added.
As reported, a study of tools for attracting book readers in Ukraine, presented by the Ministry of Culture at the end of May, showed that the main barrier to reading is the lack of a reading habit and an environment in which a book is part of daily life, rather than the price or lack of time. In particular, among the key findings of the study: the main barrier to reading is not the price and not a lack of time, but the absence of a formed habit; returning to reading is rarely a conscious decision – most often it is a recommendation from an acquaintance, visiting a bookstore, or a change of circumstances; after returning, new readers immediately demonstrate high activity – about ten books in the first year.
In another study, which was also presented by the Ministry of Culture in May, when asked about the number of books read in 2025, 45% of respondents answered that they read more than three books, of which 20% read three to four books and 25% read five and more books, 35% read one to two books per year, and 15% indicated that they did not read a single book during the year.
