School boy slams Arabs as bad readers

A 14-year-old Saudi school boy has launched an online campaign to encourage Arabs to read books, saying he is maddened by their lack of interest in reading.

Basil Al Thanyan, a resident of the Saudi capital Riyadh, launched the drive on his Twitter page under the title “live to read….bigger ideas for better society.”

Saudi newspapers said Thanyan has so far produced two U-Tube films urging Arab citizens to nurture their reading habits and criticizing regional countries for the low number of regular readers and libraries.

While there are only 80 libraries in Saudi Arabia and 135 in Jordan, Israel has more than 870 libraries, Thanyan said, citing official figures.

While Japan has wiped out illiteracy, the rate is above 40 per cent in the Arab world although Islam encourages education and learning, he said, according to he Saudi Arabic language daily Sabq.

“Because of poor reading levels in the region, Arab publishers keep reducing the number of books…one of the main reasons for this low level or reading is that Arabic language books are too big,” he said.

“Official statistics also show that the total number of existing Arabic books accounts for only 1.1 per cent of the world’s total books while English books amount to nearly 60 per cent…..there should be solutions to encourage our people to read…these should include simplifying Arab books, downloading them into I-phones and similar products, reducing the size of Arab books, and creating the right climate for reading…above all, Arabs should force themselves to read.”