Changes in the Reading Landscape in Slovenia: Fiction Reading Habits, 1973–2014

Abstract

This paper analyses changes in reading habits in Slovenia by comparing the results of reading surveys conducted in 1973, 1984, 1998, and 2014. It is shown that number of fiction readers remained stable throughout the period analyzed. However, the structure of reading material changed: in comparison to 1973, in 2014 the general reading landscape was dominated by three main genres: romance and historical romance, crime, and fantasy. Genres such as war novels entirely disappeared from the publishing landscape, and the number of readers of classic literature and poetry fell substantially. The paper examines the hypothesis that the main reason for this change was the commodification of books and commercialization of the publishing industry that took place after the collapse of communism in 1989. The results are rather paradoxical: it is shown that books indeed became a market commodity sold throughout a variety of sales channels, such as megastores, gas stations, and supermarkets. Nevertheless, between 1989 and 2014 the Slovenian publishing sector started losing jobs and its turnover shrank by 30%; on the other hand, Slovenian public libraries grew in the number of jobs, amount of shelf space, and number of books loaned. Furthermore, subsidies supporting the production of literary fiction increased. As a result, the number of literary fiction titles increased, but their print runs and number of readers decreased; even more so, public libraries became the main distribution channel for genre fiction such as romance and historical romance, and as such were trapped in a commodification logic similar to that of other agents in the communication circuit of the book. The paper concludes by examining the reasons for such entrapment and looks for correlations in the book’s ecosystem. It finds them in changes in the Slovenian education system and in the dominance of digital media.