Reading for a multicultural society

The culture of reading is transplanted with people. Not only does book culture, literary culture, transplant to a new country, but it is also possible to say that it can grow and develop too. Sadly however, the evidence is that reading in Australia has grown and developed only in English: for other languages and cultures Australia has been, with few qualifications, a book desert. Australia has paid little attention to the needs and interests of people who wish to read in a language other than English, instead of or, more often, as well as English. There has been little research into or study of the reading needs and interests of Australians who use other languages. In our treatment of libraries, education, government support for creative writing, publishing, literature, we pay no real attention to the linguistic diversity of the book culture which already exists amongst Australians. About two million Australians read in languages other than English, despite the fact that their reading is largely ignored officially. This paper is concerned mainly with reading in other languages: the limited amount of research on the subject, the extent and nature of reading in other languages, and some reasons why people don't read. Finally, it suggests why reading in other languages is important, and what might be done. [Introduction]