The newly-refurbished Zhejiang Provincial Library. [Photo/WeChat account: qianjiangwanbao]

Zhejiang public libraries recently released the 2023 Annual Reading Report, showcasing the reading habits of Zhejiang residents during the year.

According to library borrowing data, in 2023, the province had 294.07 million certified readers, a 4.46-percent increase from the previous year. Public libraries across the province added 13.73 million copies of various documents, bringing the total collection to 128.03 million copies.

A total of 1.85 million people borrowed various documents (including books, periodicals, and multimedia materials, excluding online digital resources), amounting to 65.624 million copies – that's 39.5 copies per person among those who borrowed and 0.99 copies per person among Zhejiang's population of 66.27 million.

The total borrowing duration amounted to 4.24 million years, with a cumulative reading volume of over 9.21 billion pages. Based on a thickness equivalent of 0.75 centimeters per 100 pages, the "thickness" of reading reached 690.5 kilometers, equivalent to crossing 1.5 Zhejiang provinces.

The Wenzhou Library. [Photo/WeChat account: gowzta]

Literature remains the most popular genre among readers, topping the charts across different genders, ages, and regional categories, followed by arts and language and linguistics. The top three authors are all children's literature writers: Yang Hongying, Xia Jiangnan, and Yang Peng. In terms of borrowing, Journey to the West, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and A Dream in Red Mansions were the three most popular books.

The overall number of male readers was slightly lower than female readers, with the most significant gender disparity observed among readers born in the 1990s, where female readers outnumber male readers 2.3 to 1.

Wenzhou had the highest borrowing volume, with 128.54 million copies, followed by Hangzhou with 121.99 million copies, and Jiaxing with 72.36 million copies.