Reading

Last week, as I was travelling back from the United States, I was waiting for about one hour in Denver airport. There were about 50 other people there, and what struck me was that almost everyone was reading something. Most seemed to be reading fiction, but a few had newspapers or magazines.

That is something one almost never sees in Brunei − if you find yourself waiting for a while in a government office, you will note that almost nobody is reading. (It is also true in Singapore: look at the people on the MRT, and you will see that very few are reading.)

What makes one place a culture where people like to read? And how does one encourage a reading culture? Maybe you can argue that Brunei has an oral culture, so people prefer to chat rather than read, and perhaps this socialisation is something to be valued. I have heard it said that, in Brunei, people who like to read are sometimes regarded as antisocial. But it does make it a bit frustrating to teach at a university where so many of the students do not seem to enjoy reading.