The Investigation of the Readers: “A Life Story is a Reading Story”

Abstract

The overarching question of this dissertation, why there are still printed books, is in correlation to the reading behavior of different groups of readers to be examined. For this reason, the pilot project “A Life Story is a Reading Story” is dedicated to the individual reading experience. The investigation of the reading experience and the reading behavior serves not only as a basis for a theoretical discussion. The reading behavior and the reader himself demand a contemporary practical treatment and analysis.

The first introductory chapter already presented the changes in the literary scene that began with digitization, accompanied and influenced the book to this day. Chapter 5 will introduce the media theories that deal with these changes and surrounded the book in the twentieth century and check their current validity. So it is in Chaps. 1 and 5 partly about theoretical considerations. The practice is left out. With the pilot project, the practical connection to the topic is established.

The overarching research question of this dissertation, why there are still printed books, stands in correlation to the reading behavior of different reader groups to be examined. For this reason, the pilot project is dedicated to the individual reading experience. The investigation of the reading experience and the reading behavior serves not only as a basis for a theoretical discussion. The reading behavior and the reader himself require a contemporary practical treatment and analysis. This practical, reader-focused part of the dissertation is dedicated to the pilot project.

3.1 Research Interest

The general research interest of the pilot project lies in the past and present book-reading habits of the respondents. Readers under 30 and over 50 are of particular interest. The background to this specific research interest are the published figures of the GfK Consumer Panel regarding the book market including audiobooks (physical and downloads) from January to December 2018: “The most important target group are the over-fifties with 63%. Only 13% of buyers are younger than 29 years.”¹ Der  Börsenverein des deutschen Buchhandels (eng. The German Trade Association) also found in the course of the Quo Vadis study that more and more young people are moving away from books and reading less.² Further quantitative studies on the book market (such as the Allensbach Market and Advertising Media Analysis 2017³) confirm an age-specific difference in reading behavior. The first research interest is to find out the background to this divergent book-reading behavior.

The hypothesis of the researchers is that the individual life story has an impact on reading behavior and that the different age groups are in different life and reading phases, which are characterized by different challenges, such as starting a career and retirement, which in turn have an impact on reading behavior. This hypothesis is supported by the sociology of literature, which describes the connection of life and reading history⁴ as “fruitful”⁵ and whose connection can explain the age-specific reading behavior. Consequently, the second research interest is to identify parallels between life and reading biographies.

The third research interest is oriented towards the overarching research question of the dissertation, which asks why there are still printed books in the digital age. Therefore, the respondents are asked how they position themselves towards the digital alternative of the book—the eBook. It should be found out whether the usage behaviour of eBooks can explain the usage behaviour of books. In summary, the research project asks three leading questions, which query the respective research interests:

• 1. Why do people aged under 30 read less and people aged over 50 read more?

• 2. To what extent can the reading biographies confirm the hypothesis that life is the same as reading biography?

• 3. What is the eBook reader like as a media competitor to the book?

The pilot project with the respondents as the subject of the investigation is positioned in the field of literary sociology, as is extensively set out in Chap. 2. The research project and its subject are not located in the field of reader research, as the aim is not to design reading models or to develop reading theories.⁶ Nevertheless, the analyses are supported by findings from reading research.

3.2 Sampling

The sample selection, called sampling, results from the age of the respondents and their willingness to participate in the pilot project and thus to be interviewed. Age plays the decisive role in recruiting participants, as age-specific reading behaviour is investigated. The sampling consists of 20 randomly selected people aged 17 to 80 years from the close and distant circle of acquaintances of the researchers.

In order to counteract the heterogeneity of the group, the sampling was coordinated by means of a so-called funnel question. This simply addressed the current reading habits of those affected: “Do you read?” If the question was answered in the negative, this was not an exclusion criterion. The funnel question should ensure that an equal ratio of participants who both affirm and deny the question is available. The collection of relevant preliminary information is based on Küsters’ model: “The aim of a qualitative study is to identify a wide range of, ideally all possible types, and this goal guides the selection of respondents.”⁷ As Küsters says about her own research subjects, she needs to find out something about the respondents beforehand.⁸

For the presentation of the results, the respondents are divided into three groups. The group division is based on the first guiding question, why people under 30 read less and people over 50 read more. The groups are divided as follows:

• Group 1 (G1) comprises all respondents aged 30 and under. Nine test subjects fall into this group.

• Group 2 (G2) consists of all respondents aged 31 to 50. Five test subjects fall into this group.

• Group 3 (G3) includes all respondents aged 51 and over. Six test subjects fall into this group.

A total of 20 interviews were conducted. Eleven women and nine men aged 17 to 80 years with different educational backgrounds (from high school graduation to diploma and master’s graduates) were interviewed. All information about the person that would give clues to their identity was censored.⁹ In addition, the generic masculine is used to secure the anonymity of the respondents. All interviewees participated in the survey voluntarily and agreed to an evaluation of the transcripts. The transcripts were coded and analyzed impartially and value-neutral. The protocols of the transcribed interviews are kept in the private archive of Janina Krieger, E-Mail: janina.krieger@gmail.com.

3.3 Results

The results presentation is based on the aforementioned division of groups, as their different reading behavior is to be understood and explained. All respondents were asked the same questions, which will be briefly addressed again.

The overarching research question, henceforth referred to as the main question, and the narrative stimulus of the interview were: “How have you read your whole life?” This question triggered a story in the sense of the narrative interview, as already explained in Sect. 2.2.2. Pre-formulated questions were asked by the interviewer after the main part if they had not already been answered during the story (see Sect. 2.2.2). The material was also worked through for these questions:

• Have you ever held and tried an eBook reader? (Subquestion 1)

• What has reading been like over your whole life? (Subquestion 2)

• Have you ever thrown a book away? (Subquestion 3)

The results for each group for each question are presented in the following subchapters. The coding, context and evaluation units that were explained and listed in Sect. 2.2.3 under “Step VII: Definition of Analysis Units” remain the same for all questions.

At the end of the formulated result presentation of each question, the statistics tables of each group are shown, which make the category formation comprehensible and show the frequencies of the codes and categories. This way, the code names can be seen that were created during the inductive work with the transcripts.¹⁰ First, sub- and then the main categories were formed from the codes. Furthermore, in the right four columns of each of these tables, the frequency of the codes, sub- and main categories can be seen, as well as their percentage share.

3.3.1 Main Question: “How Have You Read Your Whole Life?”

According to the inductive category formation, the category definition and the definition of the abstraction level, which form the basis for the analysis of all transcribed interviews on this question, are carried out beforehand:

• Category definition: subjectively perceived time units, intensities and frequencies of one’s own reading behavior.

• Abstraction level: concrete time data, concrete frequency data.

Group 1

The following categories could be formed for the respondents who were younger than 30 or up to 30 years old at the time of the survey:

• constant readers

• phase-dependent readers

• Non-readers

See Table 3.1: Category statistics of group 1.

Table 3.1 Main question: Group 1 category statistics

In group 1, a constant reader could be identified. Constant is used here analogously to the definition in the Duden dictionary as “remaining the same”¹¹. “Regularly” is added to this in the sense that no long-term interruptions in reading behavior were mentioned or identified during the analysis. Consequently, constant reading means that the reading behavior has not experienced any major interruptions that led the respondent away from the book or impaired the pleasure of reading. This definition of the constant reader also applies to the other two groups.

Seven and thus most of the nine respondents in total are characterized by a behavior that depends on the phase. The Duden dictionary defines a phase as “section, level within a continuous development or a course of time”¹². This work also defines phase as a section of a course of time and differentiates between two phases:

• Phase 1: Educational path

• Phase 2: Profession¹³

In the evaluation of this category, it became clear that different phases of life exist, which are characterized by frequent or less frequent reading. The phases have their own characteristics. So every phase mentioned brings with it individual intensive reading units. Phase 1 includes both school and training and study times, as they do not differ significantly from each other in their expression of reading behavior. In school time, it is necessary to differentiate between childhood and adolescence, as both are characterized as distinct “age-specific reading realities”¹⁴. Since the interviews did not clearly differentiate between these periods from the perspective of the interviewees, the analysis cannot go into each individual childhood and adolescence and combines both in phase 1. Phase 2 covers the period from entry into the profession to the present of the survey situation. The division of the phases and the definition of phase-dependent readers also apply to Group 2 and Group 3.

Phase 1 is characterized by a strong heterogeneity in the reading behavior of the respondents, which is strongly influenced by the school. So many respondents say that the volume of education-related reading was so great that it undermined leisure reading. Therefore, at the beginning of phase 2, the majority of respondents stay away from the book for a long time, as it was associated with negative connotations through education-related reading. More on this in Sect. 3.5.

A respondent is characterized as a non-reader because he or she does not read books in leisure time either in childhood or in adolescence or in adulthood. Although books were used occasionally to achieve educational qualifications, their number was so small that they were not taken into account in the analysis. Instead of books, the respondent reads other formats and reads them daily, which is why the evaluation of this transcript is very informative.

The phase-dependent reading is identified as the dominant reading pattern among the respondents of Group 1. Consequently, the question of the reading behavior of the respondents aged 30 and under can be answered that this group is characterized above all by a “phase-dependent reading behavior”.

Group 2

The following categories could be formed for the respondents who were between 31 and 50 years old at the time of the survey:

• constant readers

• phase-dependent readers

• pure holiday readers

See Table 3.2: Category Statistics of Group 2.

Table 3.2 Main question: Group 2 category statistics

In contrast to Group 1, the constant readers of Group 2 form a (albeit small) majority: Group 2 consists of five respondents, three of whom fall into the category of constant readers. Consequently, in response to the question of the reading habits of the respondents between the ages of 31 and 50, it can be answered that reading is primarily constant.

Of the remaining two, one is defined as a phase-dependent reader and one as a pure holiday reader, with pure holiday reading being a new category. This is characterized by the fact that the respondent neither read in his childhood, nor in his youth or early adulthood in his spare time. The respondent has only been reading for a few years and exclusively on holiday and on no other occasion books.

Group 3

The following categories could be formed for the six respondents who were 51 years or older at the time of the survey:

• constant readers

• phase-dependent readers

See Table 3.3: Category Statistics of Group 3.

Table 3.3 Main question: Group 3 category statistics

This group is characterized by the fact that it has no further categories and a binary reading behavior. The distribution to the categories is also very even: Three respondents are to be classified as constant and three respondents as phase-dependent readers.

This age group either reads constantly or phase-dependently. None of the respondents is a pure holiday reader or a non-reader.

In the Sect. 3.5 “Evaluation and interpretation of the results”, the results of the main question and the subquestions are analyzed together, as their results influence each other. Although the results of subquestion 1 are also considered in the evaluation, they differ greatly in their content from the other subquestions and directly address one of the three research questions of the pilot project. That is why it is dealt with in more detail in the following presentation of the results and provided with the corresponding text passages.

3.3.2 Subquestion 1: Have You Ever Held and Tried an e-Book Reader in Your Hand?

In order to investigate the first subquestion, the following category definition and abstraction level were defined in advance, in accordance with inductive category formation:

• Category Definition: Subjectively perceived experiences and sensations with an e-book reader

• Abstraction Level: Concrete experiences and sensations

Group 1

Only two of the nine respondents from Group 1 own an e-book reader. Both are very enthusiastic about the device. But if they like an e-book so much, they want to have the printed version to present it in the bookcase:

B5: “I actually, it only occurs to me now, (..) I don’t know what book it was, (.) I bought it on the Kindle because I really wanted to read it quickly and then I bought it again, (..) because I wanted to have it in the bookcase. (..) Stupid [laughs] spent the same 20 Euros twice or something. But I found it so great that I wanted to have it again, (.) no idea, in front of me, in the bookcase. (..) (Unv.) maybe The Hunger Games or something, (.) because I also found books so great that I wanted to have the real one (.) in my hand again.”

The printed version is here referred to as “the real” version and testifies to an understanding of the e-book as an “unreal” copy of the haptic original. The real version is based on this understanding on the materiality of the paper. As a result, the e-book is only a copy on another, “unreal” material.

The other respondents who do not own an e-book reader recognize its advantages and its possibilities, which are not given to the printed book, such as the storage capacity and the possibility of adjusting the font size. So two more respondents can imagine buying an e-book reader for travel or vacation.

Interestingly, however, it is the printed book that is preferred by the majority—especially when it comes to learning with books. The majority of respondents would rather read on paper, as this would better imprint and remember what has been read:

B3: “As I said, from the practical point of view, it would be an option for me, because I think that if you have the thing in your pocket, then nothing can really happen to it, if you have a case with a foil. Then nothing can happen if you put it on the beach, that’s not really wild, (…) but on the other hand I think again that if you have been lying on the beach and something has leaked out and the book has got it and you put it in the shelf later and then you take it in your hand again and think ‘oh, that smells like milk, like the sunscreen that has leaked out’ and ‘that was a great holiday’ or ‘what have I done there’ or so. So that’s really something, yes, it also has a lot to do with memory, which is then hanging in this book. And I do not think that I would have this memory/I would remember that I might have read the book somewhere, but it ALIENATES me a little bit from the story actually, if I did not have the book as such in my hand, but only on the tablet.”

One respondent in particular is characterized by his strong eBook aversion, which is based on the haptic:

B13; “IT DOES NOT SMELL LIKE A BOOK, IT DOES NOT LOOK LIKE A BOOK, IT (.) DOES NOT SOUND LIKE A BOOK. (.) IT HAS NO LIFE. You have to, that sounds stupid now, but you have to take care of it, it can break. A book, you leave it somewhere, if it is not raining, then it does not matter to the book.”

It is noticeable that the book is also preferred because this medium is familiar and nostalgic memories of childhood are linked to it. So this connotation of story-telling with the printed book can be a reason why the respondents find it so difficult to switch to the digital alternative. More on this in Sect. 3.5.

As a result, Group 1 is characterized as a group that evaluates the eBook positively in theory, but stays away from it in practice. If leisure reading is done, the majority of respondents in Group 1 read the printed book.

Group 2

The group of respondents between the ages of 31 and 50 is characterized by the fact that two or three respondents own an eBook reader. This third respondent only reads on the smartphone, but does not perceive it as an eBook reader:

B15: “Because an eBook reader I have to load extra, take extra with me, extra/that is again such an extra and I find that great about the iPhone, that you just do NOT (.)/it is not an EXTRA anymore, so you just have it with you, because without your cell phone you do not leave the house, so I always have a book with me. I find that GREAT. So that is really/because I used to always lug a book around, but so, to be honest, you sit at the doctor’s, what do you have with you? Your cell phone! I do not play around on my cell phone, (.) but you can always read.”

A smartphone can also play eBooks, which is why it is technically an eBook reader. Consequently, it is three out of five respondents in group 2 who read eBooks. The other two respondents not only do not own an eBook reader, but are also absolutely against this medium for professional, health and economic reasons.

B10: “I can explain it to you, (…) I’ll say it once, (.) because my job is hanging on it.”

B18: “Millions of people will say they have to flip through something when they read it. On the other hand, it is better for my eyes. On the other hand, you can say, yes, it is more environmentally friendly to use less paper or something like that, but producing a Kindle or something like that is even more harmful than/so the bill does not add up for me.”

So it is not the technology itself that keeps them from the eBook, but it is personal motives and attitudes.

The supporters prefer the book because of its practicability:

B4: “I thought I needed it and then I just bought an eReader (…), just to try it out. I downloaded a few free classics and started reading. And then I downloaded more and more, read more and more on this eReader, just because it is super practical. You do not have so much in your hand when you lie in bed at night and read. You can take it with you ANYWHERE, you always have your entire library with you, and that was what I dreamed of as a child, to be honest, that I had a small device where ALL my books were somehow stored, so that I could ALWAYS have ALL my favorite books with me (…)”.

The same applies to the previously mentioned respondent B15. B16 only uses the eBook reader on vacation. At home and in everyday life, the printed book is preferred because the eBook reader is only used for its practical aspects on vacation.

It should be emphasized that all three eBook readers belong to the group of constant readers. So the fact that they are avid readers is decisive. Because they read a lot, the eBook reader is suitable as a reading medium. The other two respondents, who each belong to the category of phase-dependent and vacation readers, read on paper if they read at all.

In this group, few codes had to be created for Subquestion 1 because of similar experiences and opinions, so that no subcategories had to be formed, but main categories could be formed directly (see Tables 3.4 and 3.5).

Table 3.4 Sub-question 1: Category statistics of group 1

Table 3.5 Sub-question 1: Category statistics of group 2

Group 3

Group 3 is as open to the eBook reader as Group 2. Only the two oldest of the six respondents can’t get anything out of this device.

B1: “Because, yes, [sighs] because it’s much too complicated for me.”

B7: “I tried it once and but failed the technology more or less, because [sighs] because I saw some overview there and then saw about 20 small files. I somehow got lost there.”

The other four respondents all have an eBook reader. Various triggers prompted the purchase, e.g.:

B8: “And at some point I then started with eBooks. (.) And actually for the reason that on a trip to vacation, it was annoying to take four or five books with me. And so you could read (.) a lot and if the reading material runs out on vacation, it’s no problem at all that you just load a book onto it.”

B9: “That I noticed that I can’t read with my glasses anymore and my daughter already had an eBook, like they are, the boys, they always have everything the same. And I noticed that when reading, it’s just practical. And you can, as I said, read anywhere, it’s light, it’s handy and you don’t have to put on glasses. And then I wished for it for my birthday.”

Interestingly, however, B8 is returning to the book at the time of the interview, as he perceives reading printed matter to be less strenuous and also to stock his bookshelf.

B8: “(..) Because I find it nicer again and it doesn’t tire me out as much as an eBook. […] I want to read them and have them on the shelf. I also want to buy books that I read again more often or look something up once in a while and not just read through them quickly and that’s it.”

B9 and B20 are also characterized by their hybrid reading behavior. Depending on the genre, book and a books’ function, they switch between eBook and book:

B20: “And then I download a travel guide, for example, when I’m going to Sylt for three days, I don’t need to buy anything, (.) because it’s just something that has to go somewhere. Or sometimes/I often can’t sleep and then I borrow or download something, or buy something that you can turn off at night so that your partner [laughs] doesn’t wake up, I also have that. But I don’t have THAT much on the reader (…).”

Group 3 also appreciates the advantages of eBooks or eBook readers, but does not give up books. This group is also characterized by its hybrid reading behavior (Table 3.6).

Table 3.6 Sub-question 1: Category statistics of group 3

3.3.3 Subquestion 2: What Function Did Reading Have Over Your Entire Life?

This question addresses reading books specifically and not reading in general. Before the results of this question are listed, it is explained what function means for the research project. This work is based on the Duden definition of function, which it describes, among other things, as “[clearly delineated] activity, task within a larger context; role”¹⁵. For the work, it is of interest which functions the book reader fulfills as tasks and roles in the lives of the respondents and whether the functions have changed.

Also for the investigation of the second subquestion, the following category definition and abstraction level were fixed in advance, in accordance with the inductive category formation:

• Category definition: subjectively perceived functions that the book reader has fulfilled

• Abstraction level: concrete function specifications

For each group, the main category could be directly formed from the code, as relatively uniform opinions and experiences were mentioned with regard to the functions. See Tables 3.7, 3.8 and 3.9.

Table 3.7 Sub-question 2: Category statistics of group 1

Table 3.8 Sub-question 2: Category statistics of group 2

Table 3.9 Sub-question 2: Category statistics of group 3

Group 1

Group 1 mentions four functions that reading books has taken on throughout their lives: entertainment, information acquisition, recreation and occupation. Their occurrence in childhood, adolescence, during studies or training and in adulthood varies from respondent to respondent.

The function of information acquisition must be further subdivided, as it occurs in different manifestations. It was noticeable that the function differs significantly according to the motivation with which it is correlated: voluntary or “forced” by the school. The decisive factor for the strength of the motivation is therefore whether it is intrinsic or extrinsic motivation. This subdivision is taken into account and expanded in analysis 3.5.

Group 2

Group 2 names similar functions: employment, friend replacement, retreat, entertainment and also the acquisition of knowledge, which is the most frequently mentioned function. With the acquisition of knowledge, intrinsic or extrinsic motivation must also be distinguished here.

Further, within the function of employment, a distinction must be made between space-bound and location-bound. This type of reading takes place either in everyday life or on vacation. Here, a spatial separation is made because the vacation takes place outside the usual everyday environment and thus has a special feature that will also be addressed in the analysis.

Group 2, which is also characterized by its many constant readers, names social functions with the functions friend replacement and retreat, which were not given in Group 1.

Group 3

Group 3 also admits that the book, in addition to the functions of employment, entertainment and acquisition of knowledge, also takes on social functions. The occupation and acquisition of knowledge were and are also pursued with different motivation. However, it is striking that the respondents are mainly characterized by their intrinsic motivation for the acquisition of knowledge, especially in old age.

3.3.4 Subquestion 3: Have You Ever Thrown Away a Book and Why/Why Not?

This question posed a speciality in the interviews in that it evoked a strong reaction from the majority of the respondents and brought to light emotions that are associated with books. Therefore, the presentation of results will be enriched with corresponding excerpts from the interviews. The emotionality that comes to light here is of great importance for the analysis of the main research question.

Group 1

Group 1 is characterised by the fact that three of the nine respondents have thrown away books before. The Table 3.10 makes it clear that the books that were disposed of were mainly school books that were disposed of “symbolically” at the end of the school year:

B19: “Yes, with those I just wanted to have finished, so that the topic, the chapter is done. That was very liberating after the training, I really went to the dump and threw all the stuff into the paper container, then the topic was finished for me.”

Table 3.10 Sub-question 3: Category statistics of group 1

All of these respondents who have thrown away books belong to the category of phase-dependent readers and can well justify or defend why they have thrown away which books.

The vast majority of respondents did not throw away books. If books were disposed of, this was done via flea markets or exchange shelves, because books were described as valuable, as objects that can and should be reused. In addition, a few of the respondents stated that some books cannot be thrown away because of the memories associated with them: “My mother always read them to me and that’s just/that has to/that will NEVER leave this household/that will never disappear.” (B6).

The question caused strong reactions from the only respondent who falls into the category of constant readers, as well as from two phase-dependent readers.

B2: “So a book is not really a consumer item for me that is then somehow discarded and disposed of, but rather, one could still look into it or one could give it to someone else. I don’t know, I can’t think of a/any/real reason right now. But yes, my feeling/so everything in me is rebelling.”

B3: “That’s really/that’s just so/that’s really cruel”

B5: “I don’t know, (.) you don’t do that. You don’t throw a book away. That’s so (..) unnecessary. (.) Someone else could still read it. A book can still be read in 200 years, it doesn’t/it can’t go bad. (.) Uh (..) no, I can’t throw a book away. (.) That’s also so much work to make a book and with so much love, and the author put so much thought and heart and soul into it, and then I throw it away, (..) especially/no, you could/there are so many possibilities. You could put it in the public bookcase in [name of city censored], you could sell it at a flea market, you could put it on Ebay and ask someone if they want to read it. There are a thousand variants. (.) And uh (.) and above all, a book still fits in a bookcase and maybe you’ll read it someday.”

It became clear that certain books are temporary consumer items for the respondents and that other respondents perceive books as valuable and emotionally charged. So the genre and the content are decisive for the type of disposal.

The answers to this subquestion showed the importance of the book for the respective respondent, beyond the categorization according to reading behavior.

Group 2

In Group 2, only four codes could be formed, see Table 3.11 for this. Two of the five respondents have thrown books away in the past. Here, one can distinguish between an emotional and an emotionless reaction. B15, as a constant reader, justifies his actions explicitly and immediately and emphasizes that it was certain books in question, such as cookbooks:

B15: “[Takes a deep breath and exhales] with a heavy heart! So I’ve now thrown away a few cookbooks, so they came from my mom and somehow I thought—I’m decluttering and I’m not going to put them on the shelf. I’ve got maybe ten books in my life/I’ve thrown away, and I hurt [laughs]. I can’t really do that. […] I think it’s like throwing money away, you don’t do that. So I don’t know, I don’t know why, no idea. I think throwing books away (.) is not possible. I also/I’ve never deleted a book from my eBook, from my iPhone, I couldn’t do that. I don’t read it anymore and it ends up somewhere in the corner or it ends up in a box in the attic, but I don’t throw it away. And I’ve moved a lot and dragged along ZIG BOOK BOXES, and my friends have all hated it.”

Table 3.11 Sub-question 3: Category statistics of group 2

B18, as a phase-dependent reader, legitimizes throwing away as follows : “Yes well, those were novels that have been/printed millions of times and are in other households. […] Because the books meant nothing to me, the story didn’t bring me anything in life. Or I didn’t read them at all. And then I threw it away.” So it is once again clearly visible here that the genre and the content of the book play decisive roles in how the book was disposed of.

The other respondents dispose of (as the subjects of Group 1) books that are not supposed to be in their own possession, via the flea market or give them away.

B4: “I’ve put books out on the street before to take them with me, so they can find a new good home. I can’t throw books away.”

B16: “because I find it TOO GOOD. I might GIVE it to someone else or exchange it with friends and pass the book on, but throwing it away, no, throwing it away is not possible. (.) I hoard the books. Also my children’s, youth books, um, most of them are at my parents’ house. So throwing away? No!”

Both respondents react strongly emotionally to the question of whether they have ever thrown a book away. So it is also clear here how important the book is for the respective respondent, beyond the categorization according to reading behavior.

Group 3

Only two of the six respondents in Group 3 have ever thrown away a book.

These two respondents state that they have thrown away books for two reasons:

Either because they were only paperbacks, or if they were books that were defective or had a bad/unethical content (see Table 3.12):

B8: “Because (.) well, actually it was for the reason that they were, it was topics that I was no longer interested in at all. I had outgrown them, just in terms of the material, and I had offered them to friends first and if NO ONE wanted them, and they were partly already in a state where they had been to the beach five times, then I threw them away. So no hardcover book, they were all paperbacks. I have not thrown away any hardcover books.”

B20: “hm (.), also because I found that humanity no longer needed the book, either because it was tattered or [it] was just broken, or because it was just a stupid book. (.) I argued a lot with my sisters because my dad still had a—Mein Kampf in his estate (.) and I wanted to throw it away, just because it needs to be thrown away, in my opinion yes.”

Table 3.12 Sub-question 3: Category statistics of group 3

Both respondents make it clear that these were exceptions. “I ALWAYS USED to sell books, or give them away, and so on.” (B20). It is clear that the disposal was justified and well thought out. Both B8 and B20 belong to the category of constant readers and have a close connection to the book, which is clear from their justifications.

The other respondents state that they have never thrown away a book, but instead donated it, sold it at a flea market, or put it in public bookcases.

B1: “I can’t manage that. I SAVE them from the DUMPSTER.”

B7: “I have sorted out books before and have given them to another purpose, for example a flea market or bookcases where everyone can take something.”

B9: “And (.) I just find that, well, throwing away books, that is just, (.) they cost money and that is just, you know, they have a value. In the past I sold them at a flea market.”

The majority of this group does not throw away books because they can be reused and have a value that can be expressed in money, but above all because it exceeds all material value.

3.4 Results Evaluation and Interpretation

The following section presents the results of the main question as well as the sub-questions together, as their results influence each other. For this purpose, each group is divided into their reading categories, which were introduced in Sect. 3.4.1 as a result of the main question. The following evaluation contains quotes from the transcripts, which are located in the private archive of the author (E-Mail: janina.krieger@gmail.com) and are set in context and evaluated here. The evaluations also work with quotes that were not used to form the codes or categories and are therefore not to be found in the tables. These are often also statements that do not belong to any category and are made in the course of the narrative, but are very significant and can make a significant contribution to answering the research questions. In addition, findings from the analysis of novels or the media review are mentioned at appropriate points in order to emphasize the thematic overlap and to confirm the arguments or theses. Findings from other studies are also included in order to confirm the evaluations and theses.

The emotional bond is dealt with separately in each category of each group, because: “Reading is emotion.”¹⁶ The realization of the importance of reading emotionality for literary studies took some time, because reception aesthetics of the 1960s and 1970s understood the effect of literary books differently.¹⁷ But in recent years the importance of emotional research in literary studies has grown. After literary scholars were initially very hesitant, more and more researchers have taken on the so-called “emotional turn”, which “in the last 15 years as part of the general popularity of emotions in the natural and social sciences”¹⁸ emerged.¹⁹ As a result, different models “from impact research to participation research”²⁰ have arisen. All have in common that “the methodological innovations in this field always started in the cognitive area and then transferred to the emotions”²¹. Consequently, the traditional instruments of literary studies form the basis for the new methods. However, the field of research of emotional dimensions of reading experiences is not yet very developed. Anz (2007) elaborates in detail which gaps a literary studies promises to close, “which no longer ignores the emotional parts of the process of literary communication, but thematizes or even analyzes”²². So far, for example, the emotions of the authors and readers have been left out and the “literary thematizations and representations of emotions” have been treated and the “reconstruction of cultural evaluations of various emotions”²³ have been taken into account.

There is no usable analytical model of literary emotion research yet. Furthermore, it must be distinguished between emotional involvement between genres, text types and epochs. Developing the area further appears to be very worthwhile, as literary studies can thus integrate the emotional dimension, which is closer to the reader’s experience world, in addition to the meaning analysis. This in turn can increase the social relevance of literary studies.

In addition to the various approaches and models, it is also the inconsistent definition of the term emotion that leads to difficulties and discrepancies in the field of research.²⁴ The researcher focuses on the emotional connection to the book, which arises because the book produces and evokes emotions in the reader. Emotional attachment is meant to be a connection to the book, which is associated with positive emotions. In the analysis, it is about investigating whether there is an emotional attachment to the medium book and how intense this is, and not only about investigating the emotions to a single book and the history of experience. It is also not examined how the authors evoke certain emotions in the reader, because, according to this view, “texts [would only be] environmental events, artefacts whose artificial or artistic design is intended to evoke certain emotions in the perceiving subject”²⁵.

“Our idea of reading is essentially shaped by our own reading, more precisely: by the history of our subjective engagement with texts of all kinds. If we read a novel today, for example, then our current way of understanding it plays into different previous reading experiences. This reading biography determines our emotional relationship to books in particular.”²⁶

The emotional attachment, which lays the foundation for our reading biography, already arises in childhood: “The appreciation for the print medium and the importance we attach to reading for life result from our personal reading development, namely above all from the reading genesis in childhood and adolescence.”²⁷ Here, research on reading socialization agrees. The analysis will also show that an emotional attachment to the book already arises in  the childhood.

During the interviews it became apparent that the respondents express strong positive emotions when talking about actions with books or books themselves. Especially the reactions to my question whether a book has ever been thrown away showed the emotional attachment some respondents have to books. Thus, respondents often reacted with great distress or shame. Also, intonation, facial expressions and gestures showed strong emotionality when telling or retelling children’s books, as they are associated with memories. Because of these sometimes directly expressed and sometimes observed strong emotions, it became clear that books are emotionally loaded for many respondents. In the analysis it became clear that the emotional attachments can provide explanations for the reading behavior of the respondents. Therefore, the emotions for the book are discussed separately for each group here. As already mentioned, there is no uniform analysis model for this. In the analysis, the emotions were identified as an important aspect as a result of the inductive category formation, which requires a closer look.

3.4.1 Group 1

Constant reading

In G1 there is only one respondent who can be assigned to this pattern: B2. This respondent is characterized by his reading a lot since childhood.

B2: “Ähm, also in my childhood started, ähm/I used to read a lot, from my parents. (.) Ähm, so I always read the classic goodnight story.”

It is striking that G1 moves in an environment in which the book plays a big role. More precisely, it is friends and especially the family who introduce B2 to the book:

B2: “I often got books as gifts from my parents on my birthday. AND I also went to the library regularly with my parents. So with my mother and borrowed books there. [Takes a deep breath] What comes to mind most vividly is in 5th grade. I had one in my class who was a total bookworm. She always read. Sometimes she walked across the street and read while doing so and almost got hit by a car [laughs], she really read an incredible amount. And then she often brought me a selection of books that she had borrowed from the library herself or something. […] So she definitely supplied me with books until 9th grade. And we also had an internal library at school […] Where I also had a phase where I went there almost every lunch break (.) and read or borrowed books. […] Yes, so during school, up to 9th or 10th grade, I would say, I read a lot. Then in high school (.) I don’t even know if I read that much myself anymore because we had to read quite a bit for school. But I’ve always been one of those who read the books [ben] [smiling].”

This makes it clear that there was a complete break in leisure reading for the others, especially for the phase-dependent readers: reading for school and learning. As the further analysis will show, it was the reading extrinsically motivated by school or university that caused the respondents to stop reading in their free time. The constant readers, on the other hand, are characterized by the fact that the amount of reading hardly or not at all decreased during school, training or studies, as with B2:

B2: “Well, and I think from high school on, yes, I just read the school literature, but that’s when I started, well, not just reading novels, but also psychology books. So I also had psychology as an elective in high school.”

Although B2 continues to read a lot, the respondent has also noticed a decrease in the amount of reading himself:

B2: “And the last three, four years I would say, I haven’t read that much, so in comparison to before. Before I definitely read, I don’t know, fifth to 9th grade, I definitely read two, three books a month, and now I start one, and if it’s really exciting, if it’s a thriller, I read it in two, three days (.) um but not novels, I need more time for that. So let’s say, I didn’t have the time to sit down and read.”

The reason for this seems to be the changed environment of B2, which brings with it that there is less free time available. In addition, the quality of the book decides how strongly he turns to it:

B2: “So if I work a lot or read a lot for university, then I actually look at the television more. […] I just hang in front of the television and don’t really watch anything actively, it’s more like letting it flow by. Um, but if I have a lot of time, (.) so, if I have semester break or I’m not that stressed, then I sit down and read for two, three hours a day. But that always depends on the day or phase. So, I couldn’t pin it down to a number, how much I read in my free time. Always very different. And it also depends on the book. So novels, it can be that if I’m away for a day and read, if it’s really good, but so self-help or something, I only read for two hours at a time, at most two hours at a time, rather one hour.”

B2 admits to reading phase-dependent, but phase-dependent here means a different time frame and amount of reading in comparison to phase-dependent reading as a category. Because B2 never stops reading for whole years. Rather, the book is a constant, everyday companion:

B2: “So I usually, when I go to work or when I’m somewhere longer, I actually always have a book in my bag. Even if I don’t always take it out and read it, but I always have one in my bag. Just in case [laughs], in case I would want to read.”

In everyday life, the reading volume varies, but on vacation there is a lot of reading: “Ah, and on vacation I always read a lot. So when I travel, I always read a lot.” Like the majority of respondents in the pilot project, B2 also finds enough peace and quiet on vacation to be able to read. The reason for the constant reading, even between vacations, is seen in the family, because it contributes to the fact that one talks about books and exchanges them with each other.

B2: “So both of my parents read a lot. So they read different things, but, uh, I know that we’ve always/I counted all the books we had at home when I was a kid, and there were about a thousand somehow/there were really INCREDIBLE books […] Yeah, they really influenced me a lot, I would say—but still today. Because today we often recommend books to each other/my father doesn’t do that so much anymore, but my mother, my sister, we often recommend books to each other.”

Reading plays a role in B2’s family. This keeps books in the foreground and in mind . In addition, reading has been a hobby for B2 since childhood. If reading is implemented as a hobby, it is not abandoned, as the evaluations of the statements by the other constant readers in the other groups show. In addition to the hobby character of reading, it is a positive emotional attachment to the book that promotes constant reading.

Emotional attachment

All constant readers of all groups have a very positive emotional attachment to the book. This is also very clear with B2 when asked if a book has ever been thrown away: “THROWN AWAY? [Asks horrified] NO! [Both laugh] NEVER. No, I’ve never done that.” This strong emotional reaction is evidence of a positive emotional attachment to the medium. The question of why is answered as follows:

B2: “(.) I don’t know. So even if a book is really bad, I don’t think I could ever throw it away. I always put it on my shelf, I don’t really sort it out when I think about it. So I’ve had really shitty books [both laugh], but I just put them on my bookshelf and somehow there’s always room for them. So (.) no, I could never throw a book away. There’s something in me that’s fighting against it. […] So a book is not something like a consumer item that you can get rid of, but you can always look at it again or give it to someone else. I don’t know, the/no/I think I don’t have a real reason that comes to mind right now. But yes, my feeling/so everything in me is fighting against it.”

Not only is it clear here that there is a positive emotional attachment to the medium itself, but also that a certain handling of the book has been taught. Since the whole family reads and, it seems, collects books, it is likely that the preservation of books as valuable goods has been demonstrated and taught accordingly.

Since there is a positive emotional attachment to the book and it has been confirmed by B2’s private environment, reading is perceived by him as something positive that he is happy to pursue, which promotes his continuous reading behavior. Discontinuity and inconsistency in reading behavior, on the other hand, are characteristic of phase-dependent readers, who are addressed in the following.

Reading depending on phases

The category of phase-dependent reading can be found in all groups. The phases introduced below are based on the professional development of the respondents: Phase 1 extends over the entire educational path, and Phase 2 begins with the start of the professional career.

Phase 1

The activity of reading a book is both in school and in training and study time to find, which are summarized in phase 1. Depending on the performance in school, the requirements of training and study, the reading is liable in the subjects of a different function. In the evaluation it was clear how important these functions are for the reading biographies, which is why a connection to the sub-question 3 must be made to the evaluation of the main question.

The following functions were identified for phase 1 for this group: information acquisition, occupation and entertainment (see Table 3.7). The function of information acquisition is here motivated both extrinsically and intrinsically. An example of an intrinsic educational function is “reading to be able to read better”:

B5: “[…] because we always had to read aloud in elementary school and that also motivated me, (.) um, to read better, because I realized that I actually liked it very much and saw my strength in it, when reading aloud.”

If the impetus comes from the parents or teachers and thus from extrinsic motivation, something imposed under duress is due to the reading. This has the consequence that this form of reading is less willingly pursued: “On the one hand, it was a little pressure from the parents, ‘you have to read to become a better reader’, as a pedagogical tool.” (B17). That is why extrinsically motivated reading means that it is not read voluntarily and reluctantly.

Reading for the purpose of leisure time is intrinsically motivated in all respondents, which can already be seen from the connotation of the leisure time concept. Even the definition of the Duden speaks of a time without obligation: “Time in which someone does not have to work, has no special obligations; time freely available for hobbies or recreation.”²⁸ Reading takes place here voluntarily, with the motivation to switch off and be entertained, as can be seen from the interviews. This results in the thesis that the motivation of intrinsic reading is much higher, because it comes from the respondents and is not imposed by authority figures with a teaching mandate in the educational system. Consequently, intrinsically motivated reading means that it is read willingly and voluntarily.

In the analysis of both functions, it was noticeable that in the later course of phase 1, the function of knowledge acquisition increasingly takes up space: “At first it was a duty in school, which/to get to the A-levels” (B19); “because I’ve been reading through university for SEVEN YEARS now, that’s a LONG time in terms of my READING needs” (B14). The amount of time and effort that is put into reading is getting bigger and bigger, so that there is no longer a need to read in leisure time. The absence of a need for everyday leisure reading also seems to result from the fact that reading was perceived by educational institutions as compulsory. The content of the books that were read for this purpose is also determinative. Not only the mandatory character, but also the didactic content, which was described as strenuous, led to the fact that in leisure time one did not want to read any additional books.

B3: “I would say that when I was writing my bachelor’s thesis, I read fewer books at some point. Because I had the feeling that I constantly had to read for my studies. Many scientific texts, a lot of academic stuff and (.) that I often had the feeling that I didn’t want to read in the afternoon, but then I started listening to audiobooks.”

B5: “I also read a lot of schoolbooks, the ones we had to read in school, where you didn’t even feel like reading anything else anymore.”

B5: “That somehow from a mental point of view there was no longer any desire to read something else, because you’d been reading all day anyway. And then I came back (..) to the idea of listening to audiobooks.”

The quotes show: Reading for the purpose of learning has led to a decline in reading habits in leisure time. This is an important reason that can explain the decline in readership among people under 30. The reading initiated by education has reduced or even completely extinguished the desire to use reading as a leisure activity. Consequently, the educational function of reading has displaced the function of leisure time, since reading has been given a negative connotation by the educational function. To what extent reading is taken up again as a leisure activity in later life is decided individually. For example, B3 does not come back to the book for a long time after the end of phase 1, because for him reading was permanently negative, namely strenuous and joyless. B5, on the other hand, came back to the book quickly after the end of phase 1 by reading already known books that revived the joy of reading.

In exceptional cases, extrinsic motivation can turn into intrinsic motivation if the given mandatory reading material is so well received that it is read with pleasure: “WHAT I have read was, um, Die Leiden des jungen Werther [drawn out] aaaand for the A-levels Michael Kohlhaas. But Michael Kohlhaas was due to the A-levels, BUT Die Leiden des jungen Werther interested me” (B14). In both cases it was about A-level reading material. Both were mandatory, but one of them was then read with pleasure. In this way, in this case, extrinsic motivation turned into intrinsic motivation, because the content of the book fascinated.

In addition to the extrinsic or intrinsic motivation defined so far for everyday reading, there are other occasions that can create a desire to read, such as a holiday:

B5: “[…] when you then went on holiday with your parents, you knew ‘okay it will be boring, I took a book with me.’”

B13: “I could kill time with it, also with myself, if there was nothing else going on, or on holiday, or when we, when we drove by car. So especially on holiday, I was always happy when we got on the motorway, then I could read in the car, because before I got sick [laughs].”

Here the practice of filling holiday time with reading shows itself as another category of motives from which the respondents of group 1 reach for the book.

In addition to reading, there are other possibilities for leisure activities that are more attractive than reading for some of the respondents of G1 for various reasons.

B6: “I would not say/it sounds a bit extreme when I say how time-wasting, but I could do so many other things, but I can not say that, because I lie just as well two hours in front of the laptop and do nothing. In that time I could also read, but since I watch videos or movies, I do not have to do anything actively, except lie down.”

So reading is not a form of relaxation for B6, because one has to be active oneself here:

B6: “I think that has something to do with laziness, even though it’s stupid, but reading a book, that’s the only thing when I think of reading a book, I think of my arm hurting at some point if I lie on one side, then I lie on the other side, then my other arm hurts somehow, then I sit down, then it’s uncomfortable at some point, then my feet get cold. Just somehow full of [laughs] negative aspects. Of course there are also positive ones, but (..) they are not so predominant.”

If one does not want to be active, a few lines are already too much:

B6: “I mean I’m always on social media every day (unv.) and sometimes I read there too, I mean if the sentence is too long, if I have to scroll twice, then I don’t read it.”

I: “Honestly not?”

B6: “No, no desire [both laugh].”

In this quote, Manfred Spitzer’s thesis from “Die Smartphone-Epidemie” (2018) and “Digitale Demenz” (2014) is confirmed that the smartphone makes young people lazy. Although B6 and B19, who spend a lot of time on the smartphone in phase 2, are no longer adolescents, the smartphone still satisfies and quenches their interests and takes up a lot of time. Consequently, there is no reason for B6 and B19 to pick up a book because their interests and time are served and occupied by the smartphone.²⁹ At the same time, the smartphone (primarily among young people) provides orientation and primarily takes on social functions: “WhatsApp, Instagram & Co are indispensable infrastructure for social participation.”³⁰ It is precisely this social function that the book cannot fulfill, and in which the researcher sees an important aspect why the smartphone is preferred to the book by young people as a leisure activity medium. And if the subject wants to read a story, a narrative book can also be read as an eBook or ePub on the smartphone, as the young person B11 does: “And at some point then on the phone, there was an app, and then I read it on it.” However, B11 admits that he recognizes differences in reading:

B11: “Um, so Kindle and phone not, but from the book definitely, because a book you just have/on the phone you just have the problem when it’s dark or something and you read on the bright screen, that’s then for the eyes, so it always feels weird.”

I: “//Honestly, do you notice that?”

B11: “Yes, so now not in the moment, but if I then maybe turn the light back on or something, then I notice it extremely, so then it’s always weird, then the eyes tear up a little, so if I read LONG. And exactly, that’s the biggest difference but now just in, HOW you can read, I don’t notice any difference.”

However, the differences between digital and analog reading are not to be analyzed or discussed in depth here. In phase 2 it is only clear that digital reading generally takes up more space.

Phase 2

It was noticed that the beginning of phase 2, at the beginning of which most of the respondents of G1 are located, represents a special situation: Most of the respondents from G1 are beginners who are confronted with new living conditions that also affect reading behavior.

B6: “I work all day, and it’s tiring. I don’t want to cry about it, for God’s sake, I chose it, but, um, reading books is just not there.”

The new working day has an impact on leisure activities and, in this context, on motivation and the remaining time that can be used for reading. The decision whether to read is dependent on the experiences from phase 1.

As already shown in Phase 1: Reading is perceived as strenuous by the educational system. Even those who were intrinsically motivated to read in their spare time in Phase 1 read significantly less in Phase 2, but continue to do so on vacation: “But rather on vacation than here at home now. So that’s what I noticed and I find it really a PITY.” (B3). Why people read on vacation is not explicitly addressed by the respondents. The impression arises from the interviews that it is a matter of course for the respondents to read on vacation, which is why reading on vacation is to be seen as a separate category, which will be dealt with in more detail later.³¹ Nevertheless, it can be clearly stated that the clear majority of the respondents do not reach for a book in their everyday leisure time in phase 2. So phase 2 is defined by the fact that reading for leisure in the everyday lives of the respondents decreases sharply.

Those who did not read extrinsically motivated in their spare time in phase 1 also do not reach for books in phase 2—neither for education nor for leisure, e.g. B14 and B19. They do read, but other formats. B14 reads newspapers and B19 gets information from his mobile phone:

B19: “[…] but I just read there [shows mobile phone] always/there is, so I have so many information and news and things, even if I then go to sleep or if I have time to read, I am with what I could read on the phone, still a long way from the end, that is, there are INFINITE many articles, infinitely many, um (.) News, different sites, different providers, where you can just read things, that is, I actually/it will/a book will come to an end at some point. What I read is somehow never at an end.”

The digital developments weigh immensely in the analysis of the data. It becomes clear how much the media-technical developments affect the reading behavior: The smartphone takes over some of the functions of entertainment and information for some of the respondents, which in phase 1 had still been taken over by the book. Here, too, one can join Spitzer’s findings that the smartphone leads away from the book. The numbers of the pilot project also show that millennials (generation Y) spend as much time on the smartphone as adolescents (so-called generation Z, born around the turn of the millennium).³²

At this point, the media-technical development must be addressed, the effects of which are evident in the analyzed material. In contrast to groups 2 and 3, the respondents of group 1 grew up with digital devices (such as television and PC) as given self-evidences. But the emergence and development of smartphones they have consciously experienced from the beginning. Thus, group 1 grows up with the smartphone and its possibilities, which take over the functions of the book: leisure activities and information acquisition.

Analogous to this scenario, the respondents of group 2 experienced the invention of the computer and the beginning of the Internet at that time, and group 3 experienced the invention of television. Each group or each generation has experienced and shaped its own groundbreaking and everyday life-changing inventions (see Table 3.6). The pilot project shows that for group 1 the smartphone is the medium that shapes the generation and can explain the decline in reading figures.

It must not be overlooked that the smartphone also has great potential to arouse reading interest by making digital reading samples accessible, for example. In reading samples, the head of market research at der Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels Jana Lippmann also sees the future of reading:

“The eBook is also very helpful for marketing, because reading samples can be accessed super via the eReader. That would be part of the rescue to counteract the general decline in reading! The reader lacks orientation and security, as the Quo Vadis study also showed, and so the reader could be helped. In addition, the book comes to the customer, because it has to, to be able to survive in the future. Because it is not the eBook that is an opponent of the book, but the other digital media.”

So the smartphone does not necessarily have to lead away from the book, but can even lead to the book.

Emotional bond

With regard to reading as a leisure activity, a strong emotionality is identified in both phases, which significantly influences motivation. Emotionality means here an inner connection and affection for the medium book. So it was noticeable that a strong bond to the book and especially a strong bond to a certain book series or to an author strongly influenced the motivation to read in leisure time (through both phases): “I woke up in the morning/Saturday morning at 7 am and drove to the bookstore at 8 to buy the next part.” (B3).

The emotional bond of the respondents to books arises already in early childhood, even before elementary school. However, this is of secondary importance for this research project, as it concerns books that were read to the respondents. But reading aloud leads to the fact that the respondents maintain an emotional bond to certain books due to their nostalgic memories. So even reading research agrees: “The literary development of the child begins long before learning to read.”³³ So picture books are already shaping and supporting language acquisition. In addition, reading aloud can motivate to read itself, because it makes curious to do what the parents do, as the interviews with B2, B3 and B13 show. Reading aloud is also a form of family interaction.³⁴ It should be noted at this point that reading aloud is of great interest in reading research and is viewed and analyzed from different perspectives, e.g. symbiotic or action-theoretical.³⁵ For this question, reading aloud is relevant for the reading behavior of the groups.

The emotional bond of the respondents to books is mainly due to the fact that they preserve books from their childhood:

B5: “[…] except for a book by Benjamin Blümchen. I found that really great. I always carried it around with me. I found it so beautiful that I wanted to make it even more beautiful myself by drawing something in it. […] But I still have the book. (.) And that’s the only book I’ve kept from my childhood, the Benjamin Blümchen book”

B6: “I myself, that is, my mother, read me a good night story or something like that relatively […] And then there was ONE book that was full of several stories, just, um, and I loved it. And we sold it or, um, now we have it in the practice. My doctor, my boss, wanted to throw it away and that was just, THE book. Well, then I took it with me.”

Furthermore, it can be seen that an emotional attachment to books read by oneself develops in early adolescence, at the beginning of puberty, as in the case of B5 and B11: “And really then books/so also big books read, I have from the fifth grade Percy Jackson, (.) I read all of them and so, I really enjoyed it.” (B11). As is well known, adolescents at this time are looking for orientation in all areas of life as well as for identification.³⁶ This can explain an increased motivation to read that an identification figure or story is found in books and therefore reading has brought great pleasure. The emotional attachment to books during puberty is shown in some subjects by the fact that the books are still kept and also still shown in the bookcase of the respondents and not thrown away:

B13: “[…] because you also dealt with it for a while and somewhere, if I now say, ‘hey, I used to read, for example, sucking Harry Portter or Eragon’, you don’t just throw it away.”

I: “Why?”

B13: “Yes, you spent time with it, emotions (…), um, emotions (..), you were involved and it caught you, it occupied you.”

The obvious strength and importance of the emotional bond on the part of the subjects to their children’s and youth books leads to another thesis, namely that the general reading behavior is sustainably positively influenced by the emotional bond to certain book series or authors in the early stages of puberty, because through the reading of these book series reading and the book medium are associated with positive experiences, events and emotions. This thesis is supported by the fact that those of the respondents who show such an emotional bond to certain books in phase 1 and especially at the beginning of puberty also continue to read (after the decline at the end of phase 1) in phase 2. Through the emotional bond to the book there is still a connection to the medium itself. So the described decline in phase 1 can also be overcome:

B13: “I talked to someone who had just read a book. (.) I saw that and it was (…) a book, I had already read/yes, from the author too, I had read things before. So during my studies I maybe read ONE book in the summer holidays or so, but, um, not really, so that I can say, I was constantly reading or regularly, that was rather very sporadic (.), and then I talked to him a little bit about it and then I realized ‘hey, super exciting, I used to do that too and just stopped’, and then I said ‘SO I want to start again’, I borrowed a book and then it pulled me in again/.”

This in turn leads to a suspicion: If there is no emotional connection to certain book series or authors until the beginning of puberty or at the latest in the high phase of puberty, there is also no positive connection to reading and to the book medium itself. As a result, after the decline in phase 1, reading is not continued, as reading, as already described, was extrinsically motivated and perceived by the respondents as strenuous and binding. As soon as this obligation was lifted by the institutional framework, reading was no longer continued. This suspicion is supported by the fact that the respondents who do not have an emotional bond to the book in puberty also do not read books in phase 2:

B19: “Many say that it’s great to read a book in the evening to fall asleep. If I’m tired, I’m tired. So I don’t need/this aspect doesn’t exist for me at all. Otherwise I definitely don’t have time and it doesn’t inspire me at all to buy a book now […]”

In summary, it can be said that a positive emotional attachment to certain books promotes reading behavior, as this makes reading itself positive. The positive emotional attachment already arises from reading aloud in early childhood and from self-read books in early puberty. The subjects who have this emotional attachment have read again in phase 2 after the decline in reading behavior at the end of phase 1. If no emotional attachment to the book has developed in puberty, these respondents have given up the book after the mandatory reading in phase 1. In accordance with the inductive approach, it must be noted that the reading behavior before and during puberty is decisive for the relationship to the book, has a lasting effect on the reading behavior of the respondents and decides whether reading will take place in adulthood (in addition to the profession).

Interestingly, those of the respondents who have a positive emotional attachment to books report that they would never want to have these emotionally charged books in digital form, but always the printed book:

B5: “However, if it were a Harry Potter book (..) I would never have bought it on Kindle back then. Never. Because I wanted to have these seven books nicely next to the series. I will never give away or give away or give away these books, even if they are in the basement in a box at some point, because I do not want them in the bookcase anymore or do not have a bookcase anymore.”

This peculiarity will be addressed in the further analysis.

Non-readers

Only one respondent of group 1 (B19) can be assigned to the group of non-readers. He didn’t read at all in childhood. This made it impossible to establish a positive emotional attachment to the book. The reason for not reading is that the respondent did not like the activity of reading: “I always hated reading, absolutely/absolute Ha/I really completely/so I hate it today too […].” Reading in one’s spare time was therefore not an option. In addition, the respondent is characterized by other interests:

B19: “Because for me everything else was more interesting, going out, playing with friends, doing sports, watching TV. I didn’t even have a PlayStation or other media, but just doing other things. I moved away from from [looks for the word] letters in general, it would have been the case with one, mh, a video game or something like that. I just went to life outside in nature or playing on the playground. Life, äh, I just hate reading, it just didn’t make me happy.”

The aversion to reading was then reinforced by school:

B19: “So, that’s then in school life, um, actually only worsened, that I had no desire. I also never read through all the literature we have. I had nothing to do with it, I just read the summaries.”

B19:”And so I would say, that actually steadily until today until I’m 30 extremely, um, I would say in terms of form curve went extremely upwards from my ‘I want to read independently.’ I read what I want, before I HAD to read things, and today it is so that I only read what I want.“

As with the phase-dependent readers, it can be seen here that the extrinsically motivated reading through school, which the respondent has not kept up with, has only reinforced the reading aversion that has existed since childhood. As soon as the extrinsic motivation was gone, intrinsically motivated, what B19 found interesting was read. With age, these interests have increased, so that the information acquisition about these topics comes from own interest.

As the last quote shows, B19 currently reads a lot, but not on paper, but digitally on the phone or PC. But this is not about eBooks, but about articles. Why he does not read these on paper is answered as follows:

B19: “Hmm [thinking], because paper usually costs money. What you want to buy, and it’s just very very portable if you have everything on your phone, different apps, whether it’s sports news or Tagesschau news or any things on Instagram or Facebook, you’re always well informed. That means from the from the medium, from the medium it is definitely my phone or from time to time on the PC.”

B19: “There are/so I have so many information and news and things so even if I then go to sleep or if I have the time to read something, I’m with what I could read on the phone, not even close to the end, that is, there are INFINITE many articles, infinitely many, um, news, different sites, different providers, where you can just read things, that is, I actually/it will/a book is eventually over. What I read is somehow never over. That is, sports go there are new news every day, that means the/sports never stops. […] Whether that necessarily furthers me, I know, I think rather not, but it entertains me at the moment, and further education is more towards sport or just the, the app and the Handelsblatt, where it is then interesting articles for the economy.”

The costs and finiteness of the book as well as the contents B19 is interested in, such as sports and economy, which are better suited for other formats due to their topicality and fast pace, are the reason why the book is not given any attention by B19. Books have always been uninteresting to B19, even though he was read to in childhood. The fact that he did not like to read runs through his childhood and youth and is therefore also the reason why books do not interest him in adulthood.

Conclusion

The majority reading behavior of G1 was identified as phase-dependent reading. Two phases were apparent, which are oriented towards the development of the respondents: the educational path and the professional career. The phase of the educational path begins with school and extends over all educational institutions. The phase of the professional career begins with the first job after the completion of the last educational institution visited by the respondent. Within these phases, reading fulfills two functions: reading to educate oneself and reading to occupy oneself in one’s spare time. Consequently, the functions are referred to as education and leisure activity. The analysis of the functions shows that the educational function takes up so much space in the lives of the respondents in phase 1 (educational path) that it pushes the function of leisure activity to the edge. An important finding here is that reading is perceived as so strenuous at the end of phase 1 (in studies or in training) that the motivation to read in one’s spare time is hardly or not present at all, as reading is associated with effort. This is how phase 1 leads to a decline in the leisure-time reading behavior of the respondents. The decline is overcome by those who read a lot and had an emotional attachment to the book in puberty. An emotional attachment means that the book is associated with positive feelings and memories. If the respondents have no emotional attachment to the book after puberty, they have given up the book after the mandatory extrinsically motivated reading in phase 1. From this it can be concluded that a positive emotional attachment to the book, which arises in puberty, sustainably influences reading behavior. So I deduce from this finding a demand for targeted reading promotion for adolescents. As Bucher (2005) also states, it is important that adolescents are given a proper access to literature according to their age and development.³⁷

It was also found that both functions are associated with different motivation, either intrinsic or extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation is mainly found when reading for leisure. Extrinsic motivation arises mainly in phase 1, when it is mandatory to read for institutional institutions and degrees. This makes reading charged with negative emotions, which, among other things, affects whether reading takes place in phase 2. In addition to this result that “an enormous potential for frustration with regard to the literature lesson”³⁸ exists, other qualitatively designed research projects also come to this conclusion. As early as 1994, Hurrelmann stated as a result of his research that German lessons, especially at grammar schools, are associated with bad memories because they “aim at the pedantic transformation of literature into educational material and learning tasks and at their isolation from other cultural interests, media experiences and communication relationships”³⁹. Hurrelmann sees the institutional character of reading instruction as the cause of a lack of reading pleasure. “The literature lesson is therefore structurally characterized by a tension relationship because the general goal of reading promotion always has to keep two tasks in mind, namely the promotion of literary competence and the motivation to read.”⁴⁰ It is up to the German teachers to resolve this tension relationship.

There is a fundamental contrast between private and school reading.“The alleged incompatibility of two reception methods is also discussed by the scientific community on a definitional level: Literature—then the substanzialist argument—fundamentally opposes any institutional appropriation as an art product, aesthetic experience is incompatible with the durchrationalisierten school operation.”⁴¹ The school or German lessons as mediators of reading competence and reading pleasure is a strongly researched agent. In order to be able to understand and evaluate German lessons retrospectively, Graf examines all levels by means of a questionnaire. Above all, secondary level I is identified as a center of criticism, because the young people here clearly reject school literature if they do not understand its sense.⁴² The test subjects of G1 cannot identify with their school literature and its content, which is why a reading aversion arises.

Gattermaier’s random sampling in Bavaria (2003) also shows that reading behavior and the respective school form correlate with each other.⁴³ However, problems of literary socialization can be found in all school forms at the age of 14–16, as Graf finds out in his study.⁴⁴ Similarly to the present work with its finding that the emotional attachment to the book in puberty is decisive for the further course of reading, Graf comes to the conclusion that those who read little or not at all in puberty (for him it includes class 8–9) are “the German lesson, especially the compulsory text selection, the grading, the teacher’s behavior and the interpretation practice for the deconstruction of their reading motivation”⁴⁵ are responsible. This aspect is particularly pronounced in Group 2.⁴⁶ In general, it was strongly noticeable in the interviews how much influence the extrinsically motivated reading by school, and later by training, has on the reading biography.

It should also be noted that almost all of the respondents in early childhood were read to and this was explicitly mentioned by the subjects. As Graf points out, these partly intense memories document the “reading biographical importance of reading aloud as the first encounter with literature for the motivation genesis of reading”⁴⁷. Those who were read to usually describe it as a very positive experience. Reading usually fulfilled a ritual function in the evening before going to bed. The ritual structures the child’s experience.⁴⁸ The books that were read usually evoke nostalgic memories of the respondents’ childhood. Through reading and the positive experiences associated with it, a positive connection to the book is already established in early childhood. This can influence reading behavior by linking the book to positive emotions and arousing curiosity to read. However, the subjunctive is to be emphasized here, because those respondents who do not read in their spare time in phase 1 were also read to in early childhood. Consequently, reading aloud does not automatically lead to future independent reading. Since being read to is an act of listening, the aspect is not elaborated. What is decisive, according to the evaluation, is the reading behavior in puberty. If a positive emotional bond to the book arises here, the decline in reading behavior at the end of phase 1 can be overcome by the respondents and also read in phase 2.

Seven of the new subjects of group 1 fall into the category of phase-dependent readers. Within this category, however, they differ in their reading behavior, because each respondent has a different biography that determines reading behavior. So the participants pursue different interests and hobbies that determine their everyday life and also decide how much time is left for reading. Also different experiences shape the life story of the respondents, which in turn influence how the phases are experienced (which school is attended, which circle of friends and which hobbies arise). The large differences in biographies resulted in the realization during the evaluation that the respondents are guided by different motivations to read. With regard to motivation, it is decisive which function reading fulfills.

3.4.2 Group 2

Constant reading

In Group 2, a constant reading behavior is identified in three subjects, which is characterized by the fact that reading has always taken and still takes the same importance in the everyday life of the respondents. It is particularly striking how much the respondents of this category have read in childhood and adolescence.

B16: “So I ALWAYS had a book with me when I was reading, and when I had to go to the toilet [laughs], I took the book with me, even if it was only one line. If, um, my mother said ‘so eat’, I took my book with me [laughs]. Of course I was NOT allowed to read while eating, yes, but it was present everywhere, it was everywhere/so if I was reading, I read everywhere. If we went on a trip, I used to read in the car too, on trips. I can’t do that anymore, it makes me feel sick, but I ALWAYS used to read, every time.”

This quote not only makes the frequency of reading clear, but also that reading was experienced very intensively in childhood by B16, as is “typical for the reading mode of childhood”⁴⁹. How intense the experience was is testified by the clear autobiographical memory that can be seen in the quote. “A characteristic of the child’s reading state, of the experience, is this immersion in a story, in the sense of an intensely felt enthrallment, a disconnected torn-out-ness from everyday contexts.”⁵⁰ This intense feeling and the reading enthusiasm of B16 are so great that no break in everyday leisure reading behavior due to school reading takes place. However, it should be noted that the frequency of reading decreases in adulthood, which will be discussed in more detail later.

The drop in reading behavior identified for the phase-dependent reader through the education-determined and thus extrinsically motivated reading does not lead to a drop in reading behavior in leisure time for constant readers. Since reading is done regularly in leisure time, reading is referred to as a hobby and, according to the Duden definition, means reading “as an activity chosen as a balance to daily work with which someone fills their leisure time and which they pursue with certain zeal”⁵¹. Following the definition of Duden, it can be concluded that the identified constant reading behavior is characterized by a high motivation:

B15: “Because I find that/so I find/I LOVE to dive into such stories, I LOVE it. I find that you can TURN OFF MUCH better than on TV. TV, if you have the best movie/it’s over after two hours, and a book, no matter how bad it is, and how quickly you can read it, you have once, let’s say 12, 14, 20 hours just an occupation, I find that great when reading. So, I just find it great that you can HAVE LONGER something from the story. […] I have now, for example, VERY EXCITING, so the book is not exciting [laughs] so it is exciting, but it is really hm, over six years the six parts read one after the other and now the last part came out […] and really on vacation almost let the dinner fall because on the LAST DAY the book came out [laughs] and so ‘ey I want to read it now’ [laughs]. I drove everyone crazy and downloaded the book at three in the morning.”

B4: “Yes (.) I have to say, I’m a little Bookaholic, I actually read in every free minute. (.) Especially since I had a child and leisure time has become more difficult because it is no longer so easy to leave home. A book is just a very nice way of leisure time that you can do at home. And it is really so, also (.) as soon as my son is in bed, I actually start reading.”

B4’s self-definition as a “bookaholic” shows on the one hand the high motivation with which reading is pursued, and on the other hand that reading can fulfill a function of creating identity. This results in the thesis that a reader, and especially a voracious reader, can create identity. This is, as with B4, openly given away to the outside, but can also, as with B15, be deliberately not mentioned: “But I think that’s also because few people know how much I like to read. Because I actually don’t tie that to anyone’s nose, because I think it’s actually something private.” (B15).

All three subjects are characterized by a high enthusiasm for reading and sometimes also give reasons for this: For B15 they are, as the above long quotation shows, the stories that occupy them for a long time, and for B4 it is the ideal leisure activity that does not require a change of location and can be pursued from home. For B16, it seems, reading was an important and self-evident hobby:

B16: “So I started reading quite early, was a real bookworm, my mother always says. Uh (.) I always needed peace to read. So reading is important to me, I can’t, uh, people always say, you’re now so, uh, multitasking, I can’t READ and watch TV or listen to the radio, that doesn’t work. I have to concentrate on what I’m reading. And yes, how did I read, always in peace, EVERYWHERE [laughs]. So the book went with me everywhere, so they looked accordingly [laughs].”

The hobby is still being pursued by B16, but to a lesser extent:

B16: “rather on weekends. And then rather in the afternoon. Towards evening rather less, uh, because there’s TV again. (.) Uh (unv.) and the concentration not also. (.) So I used to read in bed too, that was really important to me, to read in bed. I could read for hours there too, I can’t do that anymore today. On vacation, on the other hand, yes. So reading is a DUTY every evening/basically on vacation.”

Similar to the phase-dependent readers of G1 and G3, the present of B16 proves to be restless. In everyday life, less time is found for the book than before. Nevertheless, reading is still regularly but in a different rhythm, which is why B16 does not fall into the category of phase-dependent readers.

All transcripts show clearly that, for these respondents in Group 2, reading was part of their everyday lives in every life situation.

B15: “So (.) and/well, then came school, and learning isn’t as much fun as reading books, so I read instead of learning. I read instead of studying, which wasn’t really that sensible [laughs].”

Reading is also part of B4’s everyday life at present, because his circumstances have changed:

B4: “Above all since I had a child and free time has become more difficult, because it’s no longer so easy to leave home. A book is just a very nice way of spending time at home then. And it’s really the case that, as soon as my son is in bed, I start reading.”

B4 doesn’t just read for himself, he also reads to his child. So B4 comes into contact with books very often. So the category of constant readers shows that reading has been integrated into every stage of life for the respondents and that life and reading biographies go hand in hand.

Emotional attachment

The respondents in this category also show their enthusiasm for books through a positive emotional attachment to books:

B4: “I also have to say that I like to read my favourite books in winter, and then it always feels a bit like coming home. For example, I’ll take The Lord of the Rings, which is my favourite fantasy book, and every time I read it, it’s a bit like coming home in some ways. You’re in a familiar environment, you meet familiar people in a way, and it’s just a place where you can retreat and where you can just switch off from the normal world out there.”

As already found for G1, it is specific books and authors with which the respondents can identify that create a positive attachment to books. The emotional attachment developed early for the respondents:

B15: “I already had that as a child, so I started reading as a child, (.) because I wanted to experience this/because I just wanted to experience the story. (.) […] (.) And reading is really relaxing, it always was for me before, so I just always really loved reading […].”

The constant readers are characterized by a strong positive emotional attachment to the book, which justifies their continuous reading consumption. The constant reader can be referred to as a book lover, that is, “someone who has a special interest in something; someone who has a special preference for someone, something”⁵². And these respondents have a special interest and a special preference for books, as well as a close connection to the medium and a great passion for reading.

Reading depending on phase

The kindergarten, which precedes the first instance in phase 1 (school), is also consciously not taken up in G2, as it is characterized by being read to. However, reading (in the sense of reading to someone instead of being read to) gains importance in the lives of the G2 respondents and will therefore be taken up in the course of the analysis of G2. Only one reader depending on phase can be found in group 2: B18.

Phase 1

Phase 1 includes education and its institutions (school, training, studies). Here too, it can be divided into two functions: reading as a daily leisure activity and reading for education, where the educational function clearly predominates in this phase. Here too, a distinction is made between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. In phase 1, G2 mostly pursues the educational function extrinsically motivated. This, analogous to G1, has the consequence that the desire to read is not promoted and reading rather shows negative connotations and negative emotions:

B18: “Then often forced to read books over the studies (…). For me, reading is actually to be divided into (..) I was interested in it or I was not interested in it and had to read it. (..) And the part of ‘I was interested in it’, if you take it all together, now children’s books and something like that aside, because I was interested in it there. They were, but it had everything to do with learning, (.) didn’t feel like it, and that made up a lot (..), also had a lot to do with the content.”

For B18 it was far from reading books in his spare time, as his interests were elsewhere and rather in sports:

B18: “I never really dealt with it because I was BOTHERED by school, with the reading. (…) And I would NEVER have read if there was a ball next to it. […] I only read what you needed in school. (.) I really have to say that. It was like that from a young age until I left school.”

Reading was perceived by B18 as very tedious, which was partly due to the content of the reading material: “Yes. (.) The/The content was a TOTAL catastrophe.” It becomes clear that the school in phase 1 contributed to the reading aversion instead of counteracting it, and therefore reading was not perceived as an everyday leisure activity.

Interestingly, during puberty and at the end of phase 1, reading for B18 became a leisure activity during holidays:

B18: “Then I just read a few youth books on vacation from time to time (6 sec) And then (5 sec) after school I always read books on vacation.”

Despite negative emotions regarding school reading, B18 occasionally read books on vacation that covered his own interests and were not presented or imposed by educational institutions: “I read two books, from/ne three, from absolute interest!”

In this case, the book was picked up for and because of the situation of being on vacation, intrinsically motivated instead of extrinsically motivated.

Phase 2

Phase 2 is the phase of professional practice. Here no extrinsically motivated reading by educational institutions can be found in B18. Consequently, reading for education takes place voluntarily in leisure time.

In contrast to G1, the respondents of G2 are generally not beginners. B18 has been employed for a long time at the time of the survey situation. With G1 it became apparent that the changes that come with a job start also affect reading behavior. With G2 it became apparent that it is decisive for the motivation to read in leisure time how much has to be read at work. Similar to the extrinsically motivated reading by the educational institutions in phase 1, reading at work is perceived as strenuous:

B18: “And I read (.) unfortunately no newspaper, because I have no time. [Takes a deep breath] At work I read a lot of emails, work material, which is TERRIBLE. And the whole digital, which one consumes thereby, is just it too much, next to moving image, and just information that one reads, which always pop up somewhere. And you only notice how overloaded you are when you have the thing away for two, three hours and are somewhere outside.”

For B18, the activity of reading is overformed by the working day. He perceives it as strenuous. “So and that, I think that’s really with the/the brain is to MUD ums I still pull books in the evening.” From this follows the following conclusion: If it was the school in phase 1, it is the job in phase 2, which prevents reading from being a leisure activity.

At the beginning of the quote it becomes clear that for the phase-dependent reader the factor time plays a decisive role.

The analysis shows that B18 has free time, but does not fill it with reading, because reading is referred to as an activity that takes a certain amount of time and cannot be done in the background. The book is not an accompanying medium like the television or the radio, which can both run in the background and can be given attention for a short time if necessary. In addition, reading is for B18 an individual activity that is difficult to do together with a family. For this reason, the television is preferred over the book.

B18: “But you can watch a movie together, and you read a book alone and withdraw […]. (..) Yes [sighing], I would rather read if I was ALONE, just sit alone for a while, then I could read it to myself/eh [laughing] imagine to read.”

In vacation to read, comes for B18 in phase 2 no longer in question. With him the circumstances changed because in phase 2 children came to the world, which take all time in claim. But these are it, which bring B18 back to the medium book because he reads to them daily from books; that is the to-bed-go-ritual of the family:

I: “WHAT do you read then? (..) Fiction, non-fiction, textbook?”

B18: “Hmm, I read Felix and Grüffello.”

The reading is perceived by the questioned person as very positive activity:

B18: “Because I of the self as very, very positive experience have. Because it is a wonderful ritual for the children, and the children love it, and I love it, the children to read.”

Through reading to his kids, B18 is in touch with books on a daily basis. At the same time B18 sets the foundation for a positive emotional binding of his children to the medium book.

Emotional binding

A close emotional connection is to be made out neither in phase 1 nor in phase 2, which became clearly above all by the reaction to the question, whether he already once threw a book away:

B18: “Have I already once thrown a book away [to itself]? (..) Yes well, I have the the whole Reclam Reclams dirt things there. [..] I have, the, the, the school books, I have thrown into the corner, thus really. [..] No I had the [novels] then still a while, but I have the/I have also once a heap of novels actually thrown away.”

I: “Why?”

B18: “Because I have not read them and were uninteresting. [..] Yes well, that were novels, which already existed/millions were printed and stand in other households [..]

and I, it was probably, at no idea, change of address or so, and I have hammered that all away, zack.”

I: “Because novels had no value for you in that sense?”

B18: “Because the books meant nothing to me, the story did not bring me anything in life. Or I have not read them at all. And then I threw them away.”

This confirms a hypothesis from the analysis of G1. The hypothesis states that if an emotional connection to the book does not exist by puberty at the latest, on the one hand the decline in leisure reading due to extrinsically motivated educational reading cannot be overcome in phase 1, and also later in phase 2, not much will be read in leisure time. This is confirmed by the fact that B18 only picked up the book on vacation in phase 1.

However, reading aloud in phase 2 is characterized by emotionality, since this creates an intimate ritual with the children and also reminds them of their own experience of being read to.

Pure vacation readers

The respondent who was identified as a pure vacation reader stands out in that he didn’t like to read much when he was a child.

B10: “I was always someone who didn’t like to read when I was a child. I always wanted to go out into nature much more. I was a street child, let’s call it that. I did a lot of sports, even as a child. I actually only read what was necessary, what you needed in school. (.) I really don’t have to say that. It was like that from an early age until I finished school. I was never a good reader.”

Later on, no emotional connection to the book can be found either. Only in recent years has the respondent come to the book.

B10: “[…] didn’t change much. Except that I’ve been reading on vacation for a few years now.”

I: “And how did that start?”

B10: [points to the next room where his partner is]

I: [laughs] “Otherwise you wouldn’t do it?”

B10: “No, I didn’t used to do that. Well, when I was on vacation before, I was with colleagues, and you didn’t have time to read.”

Because of a change in private life circumstances, the type of vacation has also changed.

B10: “Because you’re lying down, depending on what kind of vacation you’re taking, you’re lying on the beach or by the pool and just lying there and looking at the sun or doing something, you’re not doing that. So either you’re doing sports there or you’re coming and reading something.”

Consequently, reading serves as a pure holiday activity. At no other time is a book taken in hand. The reason for this is also that reading is perceived as strenuous by the respondent: “I’m too lazy. (.) I’m too lazy for that. I’d rather go cycling.” So reading is seen as a mental effort that exceeds physical movement in its effort.

Emotional attachment

Like the phase-dependent reader, the pure holiday reader also has no emotional attachment to books, as the following transcript excerpt shows:

B10: “At some point they will probably fly away. And most of the time, as I said, in many hotels there are room shelves where you can then put books or a shelf, and we usually put them there too. (.) Most of the time I might need two books or a book at all and then you’re glad to have something there again.”

I: “But is it emotionally touching for you that you have to leave the book there?”

B10: “//mh mh (denying).”

I: “Does it have no emotional value for you?”

B10: “//mh mh (denying)”

I: “Mh why?”

B10: “It’s a book. […], (..) with 300 pages from me, where some, now in my case, a crime story starts out a bit boring and then gets more and more exciting until it comes to an end. And you can say afterwards: ‘Yes, that was a nice book, it was interesting, exciting, fun to read, I can recommend it, I read it’, but I can also put it back in the closet without any problems.”

For B10, the book is a pure consumer or occupation product for being on vacation. The resulting lack of emotionality is—according to the already established thesis—due to the fact that the respondent did not read books in childhood or adolescence.

Conclusion

In G2, three reading patterns can be seen: constant reading, phase-dependent reading, and pure holiday reading. The respondents who fall into the category of constant reading behavior are characterized by the fact that they read regularly without interruption, they can be referred to as book lovers.

The reading behavior of the only phase-dependent reader in G2 is oriented (as in G1) on the professional career of the test person. Also here, more is read in phase 1 than in phase 2. The reason for this is the profession in which B18 has to read a lot, so that he does not want to read in his free time as well. Other conditions are added, such as the founding of a family, which leaves no time for reading for oneself. But through the reading of books, the respondent meets the book every day. In contrast to group 1, there are no non-readers in group 2, but the category of pure holiday readers, who are characterized by the fact that they only read a book on holiday and not at any other time. In fact, the non-reader and the pure holiday reader resemble each other very much in their statements, because they both did not like to read in their childhood. But the holiday reader has found the book as a holiday occupation instrument in recent years.

3.4.3 Group 3

The respondents of group 3 (G3) are people over the age of 50. For the analysis of this cohort, it is important to consider the temporal context of their childhood and youth, as this differs greatly from the media environment of generations Y and Z of G1 and the respondents of G2.

The respondents of this group were all born in the technically euphoric 1960s. The childhood of the respondents of G3 takes place at a time when a television was not yet a self-evident object of every household, and when programs were only broadcast from 5 pm. Therefore, television initially takes place in the evening and together as a leisure activity. The popularity of television increases rapidly with its technical development in the 1970s and thus in the youth of the respondents, until the television even became a reason why people spent more time at home.⁵³ The television becomes a fixed part of German households, and its program provides the conversation material for many interactions.⁵⁴ “The medium thus grew structurally into a role of synchronization of social requirements and individual behavior, it contributed to consumer orientation and to behavioral adaptation.”⁵⁵ This makes the television replace the radio as the social leading medium. However, in the childhood of the respondents of G3, the book is still the leading medium.

Analogous to the analysis of the other two groups, the two reading patterns of constant and phase-dependent reading could now be identified here. Three respondents of G3 (and thus half of their cohort) belong to the category of constant readers.

Constant readers

A constant reading behavior was also identified in group 3, which is characterized by the fact that reading has had the same importance for the respondents from the past to the present. Three of the six respondents of this group fall into the category of constant readers.

For all three subjects, books were an important accompaniment in their childhood:

B8: “(..) very earliest, so elementary school, (.) elementary school is where it started. (.) And I’ve always liked reading. (.) Because I’ve always had to occupy myself a lot, and reading was actually a pretty good way to entertain myself.”

B20: “And of course I thought the pictures were great, because I was like, they’re/one is 7 years older, the other 10, so I looked in there pretty early and so on, and that was/that can’t be called reading, but that was my first connection to the book, right. I was always curious, HOW is it then, WHAT is written there, you get it read to you. [..] And then I/my mother read a lot, and she always, uh, laughed, then sometimes, right, in/she really read a lot when she [laughs] read, and I always wanted to know WHAT ABOUT, and then she said ‘I can’t explain it to you’ and that just got me going. I wanted to sit there and laugh too. And there’s something in the book, there’s a world, right, and then I wanted to/and then I started relatively early, like every child with picture books.”

B1: “And then I always wanted, I always had my book with me, and then they got really upset and said to my mother: ‘Instead of playing with other children, she’s always sitting and reading’.”

The intensive involvement with the book lays the foundation for all three to have a positive connection to the book medium into the present. They have learned to appreciate its positive effects in childhood and adolescence.

For B1, books fulfill in life far more than the function of entertainment and information gathering.

B1: “[…] and, uh, earlier as a teenager, uh, you had to have read THIS or THAT book, because otherwise you were out, otherwise you didn’t belong”

I: “//honestly?”

B1: “Yes yes, so in the clique, uh, it was always ‘OH, you didn’t read that?’ because then you weren’t so informed because you didn’t read the book that was being discussed GOOD because you hadn’t read it.”

The quote makes it clear that reading played an important social role in the peer group. This gives reading in the youth of B1 also an identity-forming function, which has been preserved until the present:

B1: “I became a BOOK MESSIE [laughs]. Because I have saved as many books as possible from decay by buying them or taking them with me or acquiring them cheaply. I have lived the funniest stories, when, um, taking books and, um, also had wonderful ENCOUNTERS at the bookshelf, which is almost a MUST when I go to [city censored] to the market, to look, and I have sworn to myself not to take any more books home, but then it is still a nice feeling to have a book, a written book, not an electronic book, um, in your hand and to feel it, and if you look in the corner on the balcony, it is stacked in fruit boxes and an infinite number of books.”

Books and the possession of many books contribute to the identity formation of B1: B1 defines himself as a book fair. To collect and possess books makes B1 a person. In addition, books have another social function:

B1: “Yes, that is (..)/they gave me a security. They were silent friends that I had around me and that, um, on which I, um, could rely reliably. And, um, and I have many, I do not want to say problems, but inconveniences, so they say, I think, of life over reading just a little narrower made, (.) better made, yes.”

Books are seen less as products. Rather, books are personified and thus gain social importance. So it is likely that books are wanted in great numbers because of their predominantly social function for B1 and that books were and are constantly read by him.

It should be noted in this context that reading and owning many books obviously confer prestige and status. Because books represent, in addition to their monetary value, above all one thing: knowledge. Consequently, the self-definition of being a bibliomaniac also implies a positive image. Although B1 denies reading for prestige reasons, he nevertheless addresses this effect of books:

B1: “And, um (.), I think that sounds maybe pretentious now, I think I don’t need to show anymore at my age now, um, that I’m totally informed about newer literature […].”

B1: “//EXACTLY! For prestige reasons. And, um, I’ve never read books for prestige reasons or like one, I once gave a few books to an acquaintance, she said to me: ‘No, that’s too hard for me’, and I meant too hard, maybe too difficult literature, and I said: ‘I can also look for something else for you.’ ‘No,’ she says, ‘it only burdens me.’ She didn’t want to have any books at home. With difficult I meant to carry home and set up. That’s also an attitude.”

In this way, the image of being a voracious reader is also created through the narratives.

B20 also belongs to the category of constant readers, although he allows for small breaks in reading behavior:

B20: “And I always read parallel. So I can’t really distinguish between when I was 40, 50 now/I/but I had times when I read little, when I worked a lot, I didn’t really have any desire. (.) Uh I have times when I don’t feel like reading, and then I feel like it again.”

B20: “//It’s phase-dependent (..). Haa, I’ve never tried that, uh (.), To think about which phases they were (5 sec). So I had already said that I think at times when I worked incredibly hard, I just didn’t feel like it, didn’t have the energy for it (.), And the other phases didn’t last so long, I always read something, no, but so.”

Since the interruption was always lifted again and no clear time period is recognizable, B20 is assigned to this category. Since B20 reads very much and several books in parallel, the phase of life in which he read less is still understood as a time when he turned to the book, just not so intensively, i.e. with several books at the same time.

B20 also knows about the prestige of books, but cannot identify with it, because for B20 books are more consumer goods that offer knowledge and entertainment.

B20: “And now it is also the case that I try not to overload this bookshelf at our place. There are people who make their walls FULL of books, who CAN’T give away books, and it’s all such an important POSSESSION and so, but as long as it’s not really a fantastic book, it flies out of my house again, so novels, thrillers and so on, they go out again. Meanwhile, however, I have another shelf on psychology, another on massage and another on history in my practice, so it has become more again, hasn’t it, but even then I get annoyed when it overflows. Then I sell/I just read it through if it’s not so interesting and just sell it or put it in the bookshelf, depending on what it is. There are very few books that I find SO inspiring that I absolutely want to keep them.”

Unlike B1, B20 puts books in public bookshelves instead of“rescuing” them from there. Books are consumed intensively and often purchased:

B20: “Hmm, and I buy a lot of books now (.), almost in stock, because they’re cheap. So, I buy at these flea markets, and I like to buy at the Nikolausmarkt, because I think, ‘I’ll read that, I’ll read that, I’ll read that’. And sometimes I take a book out of the bookshelf, from the public one, and, hmm, I always have stacks of books to read in advance. (.) Hmm, and sometimes, lately, I look in my bookshelf and think, ‘Oh God, I have that, that’s interesting’.”

It can be seen here that B20 is distinguished by his book acquisition and acts similarly to the protagonist Hildegunst in the novel The City of Dreaming Books, which is examined in Chap. 4. Like Hildegunst, B20 falls into a random consumption frenzy as soon as he enters a bookstore.

B20: “No, I could also/without books it would be stupid/oh yes and then I have to be careful not to go into a bookstore, because of course I want a lot of books, it’s like candy, isn’t it [laughs]?”

This type of book acquisition is reminiscent of B1’s, who always acquired books, but for different reasons. B1 wants to save books, B20 wants to have books in stock and buys books because of their low price. This aggressive acquisition behavior of B20 influences the reading behavior:

B20: “Yes, let’s say, uh, like a (.) such a magazine now Spectrum or so. I absolutely have to have it, but then, uh, I think ‘Oh God that’s too much to read’, and then I read it down so hectically, no, and I’m actually bored with it and think, ‘Huh, the article was actually important’, and then I read it across and should have actually left it, I say. Recently, I really don’t like it about myself and I would have to consciously countersteer, so it’s like a/because there it’s just about, ‘I mustn’t miss anything, have to take in a lot of quantity’, but actually I could also/with less it would also be good [laughs].”

It is a characteristic of constant readers that the mass of books is discussed. Since this category consists of passionate book readers, it is to be assumed that they follow the book market, often visit bookstores and know about the constant number of new releases. Intriguingly, the competition between existing books or articles that are to be read and the free time available for this leads to more being read. However, the “read more” is expressed in the form of hectic and superficial reading. Time also plays a major role in the category of phase-dependent reading. However, the little time available for phase-dependent readers leads to less being read.

In addition to the imbalance between books that are to be read and the time available for this, B20 notices that it is not only time that affects the reading and general media behavior, but one or more other circumstances:

B20: “But there it’s more about, (..) you have to differentiate whether you live as a single or as a couple, and how much space you have. (.) Yes, because, uh, if one watches TV, and then, uh, it runs like that with (..) and then I would have to read in a colder room, for example, and then I look at it with (.)”

This leads to the assumption that every aspect of life has an influence on reading habits: profession, partnership, apartment, family constellation and the remaining free time. This assumption is confirmed by the analysis of B8, which shows that books play a different role than when B8 has children:

B8: “[…] because I just find it beautiful. And then you also give children memories, also, um, to incorporate it into a certain part of the day, in the evening to calm down, but also in the afternoon to calm down.”

This way, books serve as a calming element and as part of a ritual. The importance of reading aloud will be addressed separately. B8 further shows that books can play a role throughout one’s life as a hobby: “Yes, and then, actually, through old age phases, always liked to read. (.) Later, novels, (.) a lot of novels actually. And later only crime novels.” The foundation that the book became a hobby was already created in childhood and continues into the present:

B8: “As a child, practically, it was also a bit like playing or being busy and also somewhere to dive into, in some other life area that interested me. Yes, (.) actually to occupy myself.”

Emotional connection

By referring to books as friends and thus personifying them, a strong emotional connection to books can be identified. In contrast to the emotionality of the constant reader of G1 and some constant readers of G2, in which primarily the stories in the narrative books create emotional bonds, it is also the medium of the book itself that can trigger a good feeling for B1. So the bond that exists with books is also shown by the fact that they cannot be thrown away:

B1: “I can’t do that. I SAVE them from the TRASH CAN. And once, so my husband is at the sports club, and there was a barrel where people could throw books and magazines, um, in. And I picked up my husband at the sports club and always looked in the barrel and once I found WONDERFUL books also from (unv.), a Frenchman, but on German, but I also have him in French, and I took them home and had such a GOOD feeling, even if I didn’t read them right away, but they were just there.”

There is a deep connection to the book, regardless of the content or whether the book is being read. Even foreign books are saved from decay because their presence makes B1 feel good. The foundation for such a connection with the book was laid in B1’s childhood:

B1: “Then it continued, I always read, every moment. […] And that was then, um, maybe even as a child a little bit of an escape, an escape from the adult world that didn’t impress me, it was also bland and boring and boring. The books helped me get over it, in essence, to make peace with this world.”

In childhood, the activity of reading is associated with very positive associations, from which a positive emotional attachment to the medium has arisen.

For B20, on the other hand, the book is a much-possessed object and a means to an end, to be entertained or informed. The object is only emotionally charged because books are associated with B20’s mother.

B20: “So there were always four books from my mother there, ALWAYS. Even when she was demented, she didn’t read them anymore, but they had to be borrowed, yes. And she ALWAYS read, every evening, every noon and, um (.), Maybe that’s why it was important to read because that’s my MOTHER’S world.”

I;“//hm (affirmative).”

B20: “[…] So reading quietly was just becoming an adult like my mother and just reading without reading it aloud, that’s reading quietly.”

As has been shown so far, parents influence their children’s reading behavior. As B20 shows, this does not necessarily require the previously described reading aloud as part of an evening-to-bed-go-ritual. So motivations of the type “wanting to be like the grown-ups” or “wanting to be like mom” are decisive catalysts for learning to read in early childhood. If the book is a constant companion in the children’s everyday lives and they are shown how to read, this results in a fundamental positive proximity to the book, which lasts a lifetime. This is also confirmed by B8, who already had a close connection to the book in childhood, which continues to this day. Once again, it becomes clear that children’s books create a strong emotional bond with the book medium.

B8: “Yes, the first book where I remember so (.), um, given to me in the family, where we had an exhibition of books that you could then buy. I still see that today in elementary school, in the big hall, was a huge table set up, and that was all full of books. And I was with my grandma. I still see that today, how we walked through there and looked at what books there were, and I was allowed to choose one. And I chose how to learn to paint animals. Namely, that’s the book I later bought (.) for my children.”

That hardly any emotional bond can be built up with eBooks becomes particularly clear when they are compared with children’s books:

B8: “//Yes, too. I want to read them and have them in the bookshelf. I also want to buy books that I read again more often or look something up and not just read through quickly and that’s it.”

I: “Would you now, looking back, if you’ve read eBooks in the last few years, want a book again in print just to make it into this bookshelf?”

B8: “Of the eBooks I’ve read, not. Because they were also, um, mainly thrillers, which you read and that’s it. So that’s nothing where you look something up or/that was really just holiday reading.”

The low or non-existent emotional bond to eBooks is due to the format. The eBook is read and then no longer visible and present. Therefore, eBooks are very well suited for intensive consumption reading of fiction, in which the cover is secondary and its presence in the bookshelf is not prestigious. Unless, of course, it is one of the respondent’s favorite books. As the results of Subquestion 1 have shown, these should be haptically present for the respondents.

Books are treated with a lot of appreciation because of their format, which was also noticeable among the phase-dependent readers.

B8: “Mh, I actually bought a lot of pocket books for the vacation, just because of the weight. And, um, I also often gave away pocket books. Gave them away, also to friends, we traded with each other. And for the most part, I always gave them to hospitals. I was clear that many of those books (.), which I don’t read a second time, which I also don’t save, I give them away. I actually wanted hardcover books, um, which I save. (.) But I actually have all of them, which I have saved, they are packed in a box right now.”

The reason for the attitude can again be found in the historical context of the media, as books were perceived as valuable and treated accordingly. The background is that the respondents are children and grandchildren of the post-war society, and it can be assumed that they were taught how to handle books properly.

Phase-dependent reading

Phase 1

Analogous to the constant readers and motivated by the historical context of the media, it was very important for the phase-dependent readers to read in childhood in order to occupy themselves:

B7: “(…) [takes a deep breath] So it was definitely not continuity in my reading behavior, because when I was very young, I was very proud that I learned to read relatively early, yes [takes a deep breath] [coughs]. So I actually read everything around me that was not nailed down and screwed down, yes. Regardless of whether it was suitable for children or not for, um, not for children. Everything I could get, I read, but that was really excessive. I read at night with a flashlight under the bed.”

B9: “Okay. (.) So (.) as a child I read a lot. That was also my favorite pastime. So wish lists were always books, books, books. I just read these series that were around then, this Hanni & Nanni and Pukki. I had all the volumes and was mega proud of it. And if someone asked me, ‘do you have a wish?’, it was always a book.”

It is clearly visible that reading here takes on the function of leisure activity. In addition, however, it also fulfills the function of acquiring knowledge and the distance overcoming subordinate to it in Table 3.9.

B7: “//So at first I was bound to this small town where I grew up (city censored). And I overcame this smallness and this narrowness more or less through the book. And later, when I could travel myself, the book helped me to find out where I was going and what the background was or something like that. And yes [sighs] I think in advanced life it will increasingly become a replacement that one can no longer do what one wants, that one just opens up things that one can no longer experience or want oneself.”

Books take you to foreign places, teach you about them, and help you escape from reality.

B7 and B9 also read after their childhood, although phases and mainly on vacation. They have not turned away from the book. The reason for this is that the book was the leading medium of their childhood. It is a familiar and familiar everyday or life companion who was positively experienced through its childhood function as an occupation, storyteller and knowledge transferrer and therefore accompanied the respondents through various phases.

For B12, playing football with the neighbors’ children, was the main alternative to reading in his childhood and youth:

B12: “That would have been unthinkable. At that time it would have been UNTHINKABLE. If ten men are standing in front of the door and want to play football with me and I say, ‘I’m just reading a book’ [laughs], that would have been a real no-go for my time [laughs]. I also know nobody who has read a book at that time. That was 2:30 pm, homework done, and off into the forest. And woe to anyone who said he had to read a book. He would have had a real problem [laughs very].”

It is clear here that reading plays no role at all in B12’s life. It depends on the interests of the respondent how he spends his leisure time. In the youth of the respondents there were no digital alternatives to occupation, which is why the respondents, in comparison to G1, had other options or the options took place outside in the real and not virtual-digital life.

Interestingly, some respondents from G3 were also able to identify a break in their reading:

B7: “When I started my apprenticeship, my reading took a relative long break, because as an apprentice in the hospitality industry/you work on Fridays, weekends, evenings and so on, and in the free time in the afternoon, where you then had free time, reading was not necessarily the thing to do. So there was a relatively long reading break, yes, and then I (4 sec.) while I (..) then worked (..) then started reading again. Then I reached out for specific books that interested me in one context.”

This quote from B7 shows how reading was resumed in phase 2 after the break at the end of phase 1. The reason for the break was the lack of free time during the apprenticeship, which did not want to be filled with reading. The lack of free time is also the reason why B9 reads less:

B9: “How it has declined was actually in the training. So yes, then you just didn’t have time anymore. Then other things were important. Free time was different. Uh, you had to learn for all the things.”

Also here the little free time did not want to be filled with reading, since in this time much had to be learned, what extrinsically motivated reading means. Extrinsically motivated also had to read B12, who did not read in his free time and rather played football:

B12: “There was schoolwork and then (.) in the forest (..) And there was no time for reading in my youth, I have to be quite honest. […] So then, (.) hold (.) while (.) the training, of course you have to read there, with a commercial training you have to read many things.”

The extrinsically motivated reading at the end of phase 1 leads, as in the other groups, to the fact that the intrinsically motivated leisure reading is omitted, since the free time is filled with other activities, whether one previously liked to read in one’s free time or not.

Phase 2

Since the time of entry into the profession for these respondents lies very far back, they do not all explicitly refer to this time unit, except B7:

B7: “When I then came into the apprenticeship, then reading took a relatively long break, because as an apprentice in the gastronomy/you work on Friday, weekends, evenings and so on and in the free time in the afternoon, where one then had free time, reading was not necessarily in vogue. So there was a relatively long reading break, yes, and then I (4 sec.) While I (..) then worked (..) then started reading again.”

Here it becomes clear that the entry into the profession, like for G1 and G2, caused a break in the reading behavior and this time is described as a time-intensive time that leaves no room for reading, both in terms of time and mentally. The other respondents only report from being employed and quickly jump into the present, as the example of B9 shows: “In (..) then yes (.), then yes good, then family, marriage, child.”

As for Group 2, there is another time period for Group 3 in addition to the training time that is located in Phase 2 and does not allow time for reading: the time of family formation:

B7: “Yes, and above all in times when I didn’t have much time for reading, for example when I had three small children, yes. I missed it (.) And I was very happy about the vacation, where I then got five or six books before the vacation, which I tried to read on vacation, (..) which often succeeded.”

During this time, when the children are small, B7 cannot pursue reading. However, the factor of reading aloud plays an important role here as well, as several respondents report.

B9: “Then I started reading a lot of books to [name censored] my daughter again. So starting with picture books and then these read-aloud books. So every evening we read stories, she also picked that up from me.”

B12: “What had a GREAT impact, not that I was read to, but what I read to my CHILDREN. And that was actually a ritual, that I always read to my son and when he got older, then my daughter took over. So we did that VERY very intensely.”

B7: “Because they loved that [both laugh]. And because I/because that was just such a ritual to read to the children and (5 sec.) I would also read more to my grandchildren if one of them wasn’t in [city censored] and just out of the read-aloud age, and the two little ones (unv.), I just don’t see them that often but I think they get read to enough, so they don’t lack that. (.) My children were read to a lot.”

Reading aloud had a high priority for the respondents who started a family. Reading aloud also had a calming effect here, both in the middle of the day and especially in the evening as a bedtime ritual. In contrast to G2, the respondents of G3 no longer read to their own children, but to their grandchildren. Phase 3 could be defined by the grandchildren and the advanced age. Since the respondents did not clearly differentiate within phase 2 and did not separate children and grandchildren when they talked about the book, it was decided not to set a phase 3. From the fact that the respondents who have children all report reading aloud to their grandchildren, it can be concluded that reading aloud had such a positive effect on their own children that it was passed on to their grandchildren as well or is still being passed on.

In addition to starting a family, the respondents develop other interests as they get older.

B9: “Because I, um/or just think to myself, then you had a group of friends, then you went out, you had, um, so, if I look at it from the training to the family, it was just that, then you were out and about, you had other interests. And then reading just got left behind. It’s not like I didn’t read, but I didn’t read much, then just like I said in the evening or on a Sunday afternoon. But otherwise we were out and about and just had other interests. And that’s where it got left behind somewhere.”

The respondents are fully employed. They pursue all professions in which they primarily sit in an office building. So it is not surprising that in their free time they are interested in movement and meeting friends. Furthermore, for some of the interviewees, the fact that they sit a lot at work seems to be of importance. Also when reading, people usually sit or lie down. From this, the cautious thesis can be derived that the professional body position of the respondents has an influence on whether they want to read in their free time. So for someone who is professionally very active, it can be a relief to sit in their free time. On the other hand, for someone who sits a lot at work, it is a relief to be active. Furthermore, it is striking that the respondents lack the necessary peace for reading:

B9: “//Yes, today it is like that. Maybe it’s because of the age, I don’t know, um that I have to concentrate much more when I read now. Because um I read then and often it happens to me then that I have to turn back and then say ‘where was that now, how was that again?’ and the only thing where I can really read well is on vacation, when I really have time to relax in a deck chair and read a half, three quarters of a book at a time.”

As already mentioned in G2, the respondents of G3 also find less and less peace in their everyday lives. The peace is mainly found on vacation.

B9: “(..) Then (.) Yes, like my books that I’ve read now, like the novels, I’m just such a naïve person. Everything has to turn out well for me, and it has to be beautiful [laughs]. Um, I still read them today. But not so intensively then, but in the evening in bed a few pages. Or on vacation. So on vacation, that’s clear, I read a lot there.”

B12: “(..) So and if I want to read a book now, I usually do that on vacation. Because before that I don’t have time for it during the year, either at Christmas or during the vacation, where we really switch off completely and have time to read. Because I can’t read a book, put it down for three days and then continue reading or read in bed at night, and then I fall asleep and in the morning I think, ‘what did I actually read?’ [laughs]. So that/I have to read it in one go, and that takes a certain amount of time, and then the book is on the shelf for me again.”

Far from their everyday routine, all respondents of G3 read during their holidays. During the holidays they can relax and spend a longer period of time with a book. The following quote from B12, representative for G3, explains why this is the case : “Because I don’t have time. (..) Children, grandchildren, dog [laughs]. I don’t have the time for that and I also don’t have the peace of mind. I also don’t have the peace of mind to READ a BOOK.” On the one hand, other interests are more important with age, on the other hand, the time is missing to be alone and to relax. At this point I would like to interject that G3 also have digital alternatives to occupy themselves with, they are grandparents now and may have other obligations that they have to or want to pursue. Time is the essential factor that decides whether something is read or not. The amount of free time depends not only on the family constellation but also on the profession. In addition, there are personal interests and other life circumstances.

Emotional attachment

Analogous to the phase-dependent readers of G1, but in contrast to the phase-dependent reader in G2, an emotional attachment to books is identified in G3. This is visible through the nostalgic telling and remembering of books. Thus, the respondents report of books that have accompanied them for a lifetime and are part of their private furniture. As already observed in G1, it are mainly books from childhood and youth that trigger emotions in the respondents.

B9: “But that was, well, that was hard for me. Because the good or the books that you loved and to which you have a connection, to give them away is not so easy.”

B12: “(…) Exactly, that was, (.) that is firmly in my memory, because I think I also have the books in the basement. (.) I always carried them with me.”

This emotional attachment, which is attached to children’s books, persists until the time of the interview, as the respondents are grandparents.

B12: “(.) If everything were only digital, everything were only digital/I mean, a child should/I couldn’t remember children’s books, I think my daughter can remember children’s books, my son can remember children’s books and my granddaughter will also remember her children’s books because she is often read to, that’s something nice.”

Nevertheless, it is obvious that these children’s books are used affectively and remain immaterially valuable to their readers, because books take up space and living space. In contrast, an ebook reader saves space. This circumstance is also noticeable in the test subjects who had to sort out books for quite rational reasons, such as moving. It is above all the space problem that is solved by the eBook reader and is often mentioned as a reason to buy eBooks:

B12: “//We still have/at some point we had because my wife reads so much, we switched to eBook because we had so many books and I didn’t know where to put them all. So at some point we said: ‘And now we read novels/thrillers and everything via eBook’, and we already have a relatively large library on the Tolino.”

B9: “[…] and then I really noticed in bed, I can’t read with my glasses and with the eBook you can just make the letters so big that you can read it. And it’s just that when you go on vacation, I had two or three books with me, and so I can now the eBook/that’s just so good on the plane, and as I said, you just have/or if something is not good, you can load something else on it. You don’t have to worry if I like the book there or not, and I think it’s a great thing. So it already had, as I said, um, positive points.”

With regard to eBooks, it can be observed that there is less emotionality in the relationship to them, as the evaluation of subquestion 1 showed.

Finally, it should be mentioned that this cohort very much appreciates the book as a medium and cultural asset:

B7: “I have never thrown away in the sense that I have thrown it in the dirt. And I also try not to bring any donkey ears and no dirt and no food leftovers into books, because my father was very meticulous and said: ‘You must never treat books badly’, and (.) I have sorted out books and have given them to another purpose, for example flea market or book shelves, where everyone can take something.”

I: “Yes (.) yes. Why would you never throw a book away?”

B7: “Because it’s just somehow/that was important to someone to write it, and I think you shouldn’t throw books away. There has already been enough nonsense with books in history. Just recently they burned books in Poland.”

The respondents were taught to handle books respectfully. It would be interesting for further research to investigate to what extent the book burning of 1933 is of importance when it comes to the binding of the book, and how far the cohorts differ in this respect.

Conclusion

Both constant and phase-dependent readers have been identified in this group as well, and both reader types are present in equal numbers. Consequently, G3 is a heterogeneous group in which only two categories need to be differentiated.

Similar to the constant readers of G2, both all constant and almost all phase-dependent readers of G3 show a close bond to the book medium, which solidified during the respondents’ childhood and youth. It becomes very clear that the respondents grew up in a different time, characterized by the non-existence of digital media. In their childhood, the respondents were dependent on books to learn stories, which led to a bond with the book that lasted a lifetime, as the biographies of B7 and B9 illustrate.

It is striking that only a bond to children’s books could still be identified. Only B1, in which the emotional bond to books stands out in particular, is an exception here. B1 makes it clear that books create identities and that the bond and experience with the medium can go so far that the hypothesis of the researchers also applies in reverse: In the case of B1 it can be said that not only is life the same as reading biography, but that reading biography also means life biography. However, B1 is a single case. Although B7 also shows that reading and life are closely related:

B7: “and yes that was for me/I assume that my penchant for America is not least due to a German pulp fiction series that only pretends to take place in the USA, yes (unv.), and then of course I discovered Karl May at some point and then this type of travel literature, where someone goes somewhere and reports about it/that fascinated me greatly. So I read all of Karl May and whatever else comes to mind [coughs].”

However, the expression is not as strong as in B1. The other respondents show very clearly that the individual life biography has a very strong impact on the reading biography. The bond to the book throughout life is decisive for the bond to the book in childhood and in phase 1. If this is not strong, the book will not be found again in phase 2, as the end of training and studies as well as the start of a career led to a break in reading behavior.

Reading aloud is an issue that concerns all respondents of this group. Interestingly, however, they were not or not as often and regularly read to themselves as they then did and do with their children or grandchildren. Reading aloud is a ritual that they themselves initiated and possibly cultivated more strongly than their parents did, because the benefits of the book were known to them through their own childhood or youth.

The results for all three cohorts are summarized below. Since several topics arise, small subtitles help to summarize the results.

3.5 Findings & Answers

In this conclusion, which concludes the third chapter, the findings of all groups are brought together in order to answer the three research questions:

• 1. Why do people aged under 30 read less and people aged over 50 read more?

• 2. Can the reading biographies confirm the hypothesis that life is the same as reading biography?

• 3. What is the situation with the eBook reader as a competitor of the book?

The questions are answered in this order. Subsequently, findings that go beyond the research questions are presented, as they are relevant for the overarching research question of the dissertation.

3.5.1 Research Question 1

The pilot project clearly shows that the respondents of G3 read more books than G1. This is easily seen in that there is only one of nine respondents in G1 who can be assigned to the group of constant readers. In G3 there is a balanced ratio, since half of the respondents of this cohort consist of constant readers.

One reason for the low reading frequency in G1, as mentioned, is the increased alternative offer through digital media. However, the digital possibilities for leisure time are not the primary reason why this age group reads less than the other groups. Rather, this is due to the age of the respondents and the associated life circumstances. This means that the respondents are in a respective specific life phase for them. Some of the G1 respondents are at the time of the interview in training and extrinsically motivated reading: They read to master exams and their school, training or university degree. Therefore, reading is perceived as strenuous for the respondents, which is why they do not want to pursue this activity in their leisure time. The respondents who are already employed state that they have had enough of reading at first, because they had to read so many books on their educational path. In addition, the start of a career is an exciting and also strenuous time, which means that the interviewees do not find peace to read—except on vacation. This is a peculiarity that extends through all groups. The majority of respondents said they had problems finding enough peace to be able to read a book. In group 1 this is caused by the stress of the job start and the associated changes and new priorities in leisure time. Reading a book is less prioritized because it had to be dealt with a lot in the training phase. Therefore, reading is associated with attributes such as effort, compulsion, exam stress. Consequently, one keeps away from it in leisure time, especially after the training phase. In addition, the other media seem to provide relaxation more quickly, which one wants to experience quickly because the life circumstances are characterized by stress and change. So there is less peace, which seems to be needed for a book. Because, according to the respondents, a book can not be consumed quickly. It takes time that, according to the statements of the respondents, is hardly available in everyday life. Only the one constant reader, who can be called a hobby reader, explicitly takes time for it, but also admits to having difficulty finding this time. This is seen as the reason why G1 generally reads less than G3: The life circumstances leave too little time. So the decline in reading frequency has less to do with the medium itself than with the attributes that the medium book and the activity of reading have been imposed by the educational path when this age group is more likely to stay away from the book. Only the readers who have built and maintained a close relationship with the book in childhood and adolescence, before reading was perceived as compulsion and effort, can free the book from such attributes because they also know its positive effects.

Further analysis showed that it has much less to do with the book and reading itself, but with the attributes that the medium book and the activity of reading have been imposed by the educational path when this age group is more likely to stay away from the book. Only the readers who have built and maintained a close relationship with the book in childhood and adolescence, before reading was perceived as compulsion and effort, can free the book from such attributes because they also know its positive effects.

The reason why the numbers are steadily declining can be answered on the basis of a media-historical consideration. The analysis has shown that childhood and youth are of great importance and lay the foundation for which relationship to the book is built and how it develops over life. The subjects of G1, who are almost all still millennials, did not know any smartphones, social media or streaming portals in their childhood and early youth with which they could have occupied themselves in their free time. Consequently, the book had fewer competitors and was picked up more often. Generation Z, on the other hand, grew up with these media and perceives them as self-evident, which is why they are referred to as the “digital natives”. This means: The book has to compete with these in childhood and early youth, which has turned out to be a critical phase for the attachment to the book. So the reason why the numbers for G1 were steadily declining is that Generation Z, which also belongs to Group 1, has built up a less strong attachment to the book because in their youth they were already more involved with social media and streaming services. Therefore, it would be advisable for subsequent studies to subdivide Group 1 again in order to investigate the generational differences between millennials and Generation Z in more detail.

When comparing both groups, it becomes apparent that G3 has more constant readers than G1 and thus confirms the figures of the GfK, according to which people under 30 read less and people over 50 read more. Group 3 is also characterized by a balanced ratio between constant and phase-dependent readers. However, the latter also admit to having difficulty finding the peace that is necessary for reading a book. In addition, there are too many other tasks and interests that are pursued in leisure time, tasks that arise with increasing age: looking after children and/or grandchildren, sports, work, gardening and much more. These activities take up a lot of time and energy in addition to working, which then leaves no time for reading. Because reading takes active time. Those who have always devoted a lot of time to reading do not find it difficult, because reading as a hobby always accompanied the constant readers and the peace that reading causes is actively sought.

In the survey and evaluation of group 3, it became apparent that the media-historical background plays a role in understanding why this group reads overall. This group has a different connection to the book because this medium was almost the only one that the respondents could use alone in their childhood and youth. Through the book they were able to get to know foreign places for the first time, as B1 and B7 state. The book was therefore a natural everyday companion to find out stories. That’s why they’ve stayed true to the book. A strong familiarity that the book evokes in the respondents and can justify, explains why many of the G3 still use and read this medium. Why they read more and more according to the figures of the GfK could not be found out through the pilot project. Rather, it has become apparent that, as in the everyday life of G1, little time can be found in the everyday life of the respondents that can be dedicated to the book. In addition, some respondents state that they have to read a lot at work, so that no additional desire for reading arises in their free time. It is here that digitization has led to the fact that work is primarily done on the PC, which also requires text work, including reading.

It can be summarized that both groups hardly find the time that the book-reading requires. (Book) reading can not happen quickly and in the background, as television or radio can do as accompanying media. The book is in contrast to the television a deceleration medium that does not fit into the everyday life and the daily routine of the respondents, whose time availability is limited by the entry into the profession, family foundation and changing interests. On free days, however, the book is used precisely because it takes time. So the book is read primarily on vacation, as there is enough time here.

For all groups it applies that those who read a lot continuously have experienced very strong positive experiences with the book in childhood and youth and have integrated reading as a hobby into their everyday life. This makes it possible to overcome the negative feelings towards reading that have arisen through the educational path, as the positive ones predominate.

Finally, one more finding is presented that can explain the increase in reading rates among those over 50. The rapid digital development and the resulting changes in various areas of life can lead to overwhelm. Those surveyed in G1 are growing up in an environment that is characterized by constant change and are better accustomed to these conditions than those surveyed in G3. The analysis showed that the book has the status of a very reliable, because tried and true, medium. In uncertain and rapid (globally simultaneous) times, people turn to the familiar: the book. Although respondents say they find little time for it, it is precisely a time effect that reading produces, namely deceleration. So one approach to explaining the fact that respondents in G3 are reading more books again is that the present moment is experienced as a time of too many new, constantly changing media, and the book provides security in this respect. This thesis is currently primarily confirmed by the increased sales figures for the 2020 Corona pandemic. For example, the special analysis of the Frankfurt Book Fair 2020 “The Book in Times of Corona—Changed Media Use and Buying Behavior” found: “21% of readers read more often than before the outbreak of the pandemic, 8% also less often. This results in a net increase of 13%”⁵⁶. Group 1 in particular shows changed behavior: “In the 10–19 age group, almost one third (32%) read more often than before the pandemic. In the 20–29 age group, it is more than one quarter (26%).”⁵⁷ It can be seen that in times of crisis people turn to the book.

To conclude this subchapter, the answer to the research question is expressly formulated: people under the age of 30 read less and less because the book is negatively associated with the educational path and one therefore distances oneself from it. The reading initiated by school and training has reduced or even completely stopped the desire to use reading as a leisure activity for the clear majority of the respondents. Consequently, the educational function of reading has displaced the function of leisure time, because the educational function of reading has added negative connotations to reading. The passionate hobby readers can set themselves apart from this.

The numbers are steadily declining, as the age group also includes Generation Z, who grew up with new media and had less chance of reading books in their spare time. Therefore, a less strong bond with books could form in their youth, which, however, is decisive for how much is read in later life. In G3, more books are actually read than in G1, as more hobby readers were found here who developed a deep bond with books and reading in their childhood. The respondents of G3 read more because they grew up with books. Nevertheless, they also find little time to read a book in peace. In both groups, a strong utilization with the everyday workload was identified, which leaves little room for books.

Finally, it should be noted that the individual preferences of the respondents differ from each other. Each respondent is characterized individually by his biography, education, performance at school, interests and access to technology and new media. All this determines the relationship to the book, its reading behavior and the degree of openness to new media.⁵⁸ Against this background, the next research question is now to be answered, whether a life biography is the same as a reading biography.

3.5.2 Research Question 2

The analysis of the interviews and the division into Phase 1 and Phase 2 already showed how strongly life affects reading biography. The evaluation of the first research question also shows how closely life and reading biography interact and what role age and the associated life circumstances play. The life phases, which are particularly clearly visible in G2, determine how much free time is available, how much time is left for the book in addition to all other leisure activities, and also what priority books have. So above all the choice of profession and the family background are decisive for how much attention is paid to reading books. This is accompanied by differences in the function that reading plays in the lives of the respondents. So books are alternately read for entertainment, knowledge acquisition or inspiration. This is strongly dependent on the individual biography and life phase, as the interviews show. So it becomes very clear here again that life affects reading biography, both in terms of the amount consumed and in terms of genre choice.

In fact, the reverse is also possible. So it can be said for a subject that reading biography affects life biography. Books have had such a strong influence on B1 that they were decisive for his further life planning. B7 also notes that books were decisive for later travel preferences. It should be noted again that B1 and B7 belong to group 3 and this makes it clear what importance books had for this generation. Books were a leading medium and had a great influence on the respondents’ ideas of the world, which they first knew through books. This caused a deep connection that has persisted to this day. This shows the power and influence that media can have.⁵⁹

3.5.3 Research Question 3

According to the evaluation of the pilot project, the eBook is lagging behind the book, or in other words, the eBook is fading in comparison to the book. Only five of the twenty respondents address the eBook of their own accord and report on their experiences. The clear majority of the respondents read—if they read— a book (in paper).

Almost all of the respondents who were classified as frequent readers own an eBook reader. It became clear that the eBook reader is primarily used for consumption reading, as it solves the space problem of books and makes their quick acquisition possible. That is why it is particularly suitable for travel, as it is handy and can store many texts. In addition, the font size and brightness can be adjusted, which is why eBooks are perceived as very practical. Accordingly, the practicability is the main reason for acquiring an eBook reader. In terms of aesthetics, reading experience and, above all, prestige, however, it is the book that wins the direct comparison with the eBook. Thus, the analysis showed that individual test persons bought an eBook again in paper form as a book if they liked it very much and wanted to present it haptically in their bookcase.

Furthermore, it should be noted that one of the respondents moved back from the eBook to the book again and another only reads eBooks instead of books on vacation, for practical reasons. So it can be said that for two of the five respondents who own an eBook reader, the eBook serves as an addition to the book and is only used for certain genres and certain situations (such as travel). The other three eBook owners have switched to the medium completely and are very enthusiastic about it. Interestingly, however, they also say that they want to keep children away from the eBook so that they first learn to use the book and stay away from digital for as long as possible.

The use of an eBook is not limited to one age group, but extends across all generations. This means that the partial results of the “Population Survey on eBook Use in Germany” in December 2017 on behalf of PwC cannot be supported by the data evaluation of the pilot project. So one result of this population survey was that it is particularly difficult for older people to change the format: “So far, men have gained more experience with eBooks than women. With increasing age, the rejection of eBooks increases.”⁶⁰ This statement cannot be confirmed by the pilot project, which shows that people appreciate the advantages of eBooks more and more as they get older, and that it is primarily women who use the eBook reader.

The question of why the eBook has relatively few users in Germany has not yet been clarified. One approach is that, according to the interviews, eBooks are characterized by a different emotionalism.

B4: “That’s the big thing I say, I would NEVER have started using eBooks myself. I would always have taken the printed book, because you have something in your hand, it’s something on the shelf. I also have to say that when I look through my books at my parents’, because all my children’s and young adult books are still at my parents’, then I go along the shelf and think, ‘Oh, the book, that was nice, I read it then and then, and then and then recommended it to me,’ and you don’t have that with an eBook reader, you just have your library too and can scroll through from time to time and think, ‘Oh, I read that,’ but you don’t have that anymore/(.) I find that it’s missing a little bit, it’s missing a little bit of feeling, I have to be honest.”

Printed books evoke a different emotionality in B4 and others because they remind them of childhood and youth. How important the emotional connection is for reading behavior was extensively discussed in Sect. 3.5. In addition, as the analysis has shown, eBooks are perceived more as consumer goods, while books are seen as high-quality consumer and cultural objects. If one follows the analysis of the data, the thesis arises that people are so busy with digital devices every day, such as laptops, tablets, smartphones and television, that they do not want to read using digital media in their free time. In addition, reading digitally is partly perceived as more strenuous, as B8 said: I don’t know if it’s tiring or just/I can’t even say that, but having the book in my hand, flipping through and reading it doesn’t tire me out so much.

In summary, the third research question can be answered as follows: For the respondents of the pilot project, the eBook serves, among other things, as a supplement to the book for certain situations and genres. It is also very advantageous for avid readers. However, the majority of respondents characterize themselves as phase-dependent readers who, WHEN they read, want to read printed matter, since the medium itself (as a rule) is associated with positive memories and emotions since childhood, the handling is learned and familiar, and it is used because of its materiality, which seems to represent a contrast to the transience of the digital. If reading is done in leisure time, the book is preferred, probably because so much else is already happening in a digital format.⁶¹

3.5.4 Further Research Findings

In addition to the research questions, further aspects have emerged that can contribute to answering the overarching research question of the dissertation.

The problem of finding peace

An overarching theme that can be found in all groups is the fact that the respondents find it difficult to find peace in their everyday lives. Yet it is precisely this peace that is needed for reading, if we follow the statement of the test persons. The Quo Vadis study (2018) also comes to a similar result: “While people feel rushed and under time pressure through social media, they associate books with personal time-out, relaxation, emotional experience and inspiration.”⁶² There was a “certain yearning for reading”⁶³ apparent. Why don’t you take the time despite the yearning? This zeitgeist peculiarity will be dealt with separately below.

The respondents of all age groups who belong to the phase-dependent readers always express that they do not always find the time and peace to dedicate themselves to a book. The day is full of tasks and efforts, so that no strength can be found for reading, as reading is also perceived as an effort. This perception is based on the fact that watching television is experienced as less strenuous, although from a medical point of view television is more strenuous for the eyes. This peace is mainly found on vacation. Then also those who normally do not have time, peace or desire for a book in everyday life reach for the book.

As already introduced, G1 and G2 indicate that the tag is too heavily loaded. This is also noticeable with G2. The digital media used in the profession also play a role here. If the profession exercised is primarily defined by PC work, which includes reading documents and emails, reading is not continued in leisure time using digital media. The specifics of phases 1 and 2 can be explained by this type of reading. All respondents state that the end of the training period was so deformed by the activity of reading that this activity was not pursued at the time of starting the job and in leisure time. Two types of reading must be distinguished here. In phase 1, reading is done in order to learn and to master the degree. In phase 2, reading is done in order to pursue a professional activity. Many work steps, processes, and even entire institutions have been outsourced to digital media through digitization. The use of any digital device requires the ability to read. In addition, there are social media, etc., which are also text-based. This means that man has never read as much as in the digital age. However, this has the consequence that the original medium of the activity of reading, the book, suffers. This leads to the assumption that one reading excludes the other: reading in school and reading at work prevents reading in leisure time (except on vacation). The fact that reading in school and at work is extrinsically motivated reading also plays a role here. Digitization has made it possible for more texts to be produced and read than ever before, but on the other hand, more and more people, especially younger people, are giving up books. Digitization also plays a role here. It has produced and platforms that are preferred by younger people and that are so demanding in their use that their users are too exhausted to read a book.

It is another effect that results from phase 1 that reading is perceived as strenuous activity. The memory that reading can be a positive experience only comes up some time after the transition to phase 2 and can only arise from a positive bond with the book that was created in childhood.

Even the constant readers show that a positive bond with the book in childhood is the trigger for their reading behavior. The big difference to the phase-dependent readers is that the constant readers are looking for the peace that is created by the book. The constant readers understand peace in a different sense, namely not as something missing, but as something to be created by the book. Inner peace is established by the book, and this is sought and found by the book especially because of the otherwise prevailing unrest caused by digital devices. A strong contradiction becomes visible here: the spirit of the times is characterized by unrest, which has arisen from digital devices and the resulting global simultaneity. This unrest keeps the phase-dependent readers further away from the book and also makes reading more difficult for the constant readers, who, however, appreciate the advantages of the book even more because of the unrest.

The definition of reading

During the course of the interviews, it became apparent that the respondents primarily relate “reading” to reading books, even though the narrative stimulus “How have you read your whole life?” left the reference object open. Nevertheless, the associated object was a book for all respondents at first. Nevertheless, it happened in some interviews that the newspaper and magazines were also integrated into the biographical narrative, and thus the term “reading” was also transferred to other objects. E-mails and messages on the smartphone or in social media were also mentioned, which led some respondents to be surprised at how much they actually read every day. So during the interview there was a confrontation with the concept itself, and it became clear to the interview partners that reading is no longer limited to the book and that reading is an activity that they carry out much more often than they were aware of.

It is striking that the awareness of this was already more pronounced in the respondents of G1 and that these mentioned other reference objects more often, such as apps and lecture notes and social media. For those under 30, reading is associated with many media, which shows that modern media are perceived as reading media. From this, in turn, the finding can be formulated that social media promote reading competence. However, since these primarily focus on images (Instagram) and short text messages (Twitter), reading is limited to short texts. So it is proven to be strenuous for users to read longer texts, which is also avoided, as B6 admits: “I mean, I’m always on the go in social media every day, and I sometimes read there too, I mean if the sentence is too long, if I have to scroll twice, then I don’t read it.”

Vacation reading

Interestingly, almost all respondents in the study read at least one book on vacation. As already mentioned, vacation is the time when peace is found to read a book. Therefore, the vacation was the main reason for the respondents to buy an eBook reader.

B8: “And at some point I started with eBooks. (.) And actually for the reason that on a trip on vacation, it was annoying to take four or five books with me. And so you could read a lot, and if then the reading material runs out on vacation, it’s no problem at all that you just load a book onto it. That was quite comfortable. Meanwhile/(.) Yes, well, then there was a time when audiobooks were also quite good. But meanwhile I’m coming back to books, taking the book in my hand. (.) And for the reason [laughs] no audiobook anymore, because I always fall asleep.”

Because of its practical advantages, the eBook reader seems to be ideally suited. Most respondents who read eBooks on an eBook reader also use it beyond the holidays. However, primarily entertainment books are read on the eBook reader. Textbooks are rather read analogously in order to be able to provide them with markings and notes, as the respondents state.

It should be noted that books as travel literature belong to the clear majority of respondents. Reading books is associated with relaxation, which is associated with time expenditure for the phase-dependent readers. This great time expenditure can only be managed on vacation. In reverse, constant readers are always symbolically on vacation when they read, which certainly also explains why they do not stop reading.⁶⁴

Gender differences clearly recognizable

In the analysis, no distinction was made between the sexes. On the one hand, in order not to start the pilot project with a bias and to analyze its findings, on the other hand, also to ensure the absolute anonymity of the interviewees. However, during the analysis it became clear that a gender difference can be made, which is why this is finally addressed briefly.

All female respondents had a connection to the book and reached for the book more often. Only male respondents had little or no interest in the book. This phenomenon is known to research: “All empirical findings confirm a significant gender-specificity of reading for the past and also for the present.”⁶⁵ There are various explanatory approaches from biology, social and cultural history and psychology as well as role-theoretical and psychoanalytical hypotheses, which Werner Graf (2010) discusses.⁶⁶

In order to investigate the reason for these gender differences, the image of the typical female reader of novels that arose in the eighteenth century must be taken into account, as well as the thesis of the tradition of this role “through the role-theoretical descriptions of the mediation through socialization institutions”⁶⁷. Psychoanalysis of reading comes to the result here that “the gender-specifically oriented literary socialization […] however, seems to be opposed to a psychic disposition”⁶⁸. In puberty, the genders develop their social identity, so reading in puberty also has a representative function: “Girls and boys pay attention to demonstrating their distinctive identity in terms of their reading preferences, while the quality of their reading converges.”⁶⁹ Consequently, reading must be associated with certain connotations that male adolescents in particular want to add to their identity by reading. Furthermore, no further reference will be made to gender differences, as they are of little relevance to this investigation and because they exclude the third and other genders.

The importance of reading aloud

An important finding from the pilot project is that being read to in childhood lays an important foundation for a positive relationship with the book.⁷⁰ Those of the respondents who were read to mention this as a very positive experience and memory that they want to pass on to their children, and those who already have children read to their children. Thus, reading aloud has proven to be a generational tradition, as the respondents showed quite generally. In this way, the respondents pass on their own positive experiences with the book to their children by also creating positive experiences with reading aloud and thus creating the basis for a positive relationship between their children and the book, which can increase the motivation to read.

This reading behavior can be used to make a prediction about the future: If the children of G1 and the grandchildren of G3 also perceive reading as a positive experience and want to carry this experience forward, the future of the book can be “saved”. If everyone who is read to perceives reading as a positive experience and wants to pass this experience on to their children, many children will be given a positive foundation for a close relationship with the book and with reading.