Hermione Granger is teenagers' top fictional dream date
03 Mar 2011
Harry Potter character tops poll in new survey of teenage reading habits
Harry Potter character Hermione Granger is the favourite fictional dream date for teenage readers, according to a new survey.
Almost a quarter of the teenagers surveyed (23 per cent) chose her character, played by Emma Watson in the films, ahead of Jacob Black (14.1 per cent) and Edward Cullen (9.9 per cent) from the Twilight books.
The survey, conducted to mark World Book Day, also identified favourite teenage reads past and present.
One in ten adults (10.2 per cent) said their favourite book as a teenager was The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, by Sue Townsend.
JK Rowling's novels about teenage wizard Harry Potter topped the poll of today's teenagers with 30.5 per cent naming them as favourites.
JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, George Orwell's 1984 and The Diary of Anne Frank were the only books that appeared on both lists.
Almost a third of teenagers (30.1 per cent) said they only read a couple of books a year, with 18.6 per cent saying they read one book a week.
Rachel Russell, from World Book Day 2011, said: "In the year that World Book Day is focusing on helping teenagers celebrate books and reading, it's interesting to see what tastes and traits young readers today share with readers of the past.
"Our results show that in a world of digital media teenagers still love books, and are enjoying classics novels as well as contemporary best-sellers.
"It would be interesting to see answers to the same questions from teenagers in another generation's time."
Opinion Matters surveyed 1,583 adults and 505 teenagers aged 13-18.
ISBN: 9780141315980
By Jason Taylors
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