MARRIED Scottish people are more likely to be found glued to their favourite novel in the bathroom than singletons, a new survey has found.
More than half of about 1,200 people polled for the Scottish Book Trust said they wished they could make more time to read for pleasure.
The survey by YouGov also found 73 per cent of us are likely to find reading time just before we go to sleep.
People in Glasgow prefer to read on journeys, with 67 per cent of residents mainly reading on public transport.
Young people in the 18 to 24 age range are among those keenest to spend some time alone with a book, with 72 per cent wanting to make more time to read. Married people and those "living as married" are more likely to read in the bathroom - 22 per cent and 33 per cent respectively - more than any other relationship status.
The Scottish Book Trust is launching Reading Pledges, a scheme aimed at encouraging people to read more often. It is part of Book Week Scotland, which runs from November 24 to 30.
People are being urged to choose from a list of pledges or create their own, and share them on social media.
Some high-profile reading pledges have been made to publicise the effort.
Adventurer and TV presenter Mark Beaumont said: "I will read Moby Dick for Book Week Scotland 2014 and I will read my daughter more bedtime stories."
Marc Lambert, trust director, said: "We've all struggled with reading at some point in our lives, perhaps when we were learning or became parents and life got busy. Reading Pledges gives us a perfect excuse to relax with a book for some time during the day.
"For Book Week Scotland I pledge to read one Sherlock Holmes story a night to my 14-year-old daughter (but really it's for me)."
Joanne Harris, author of Chocolat, said: "I pledge to read a short story to my husband every day. He loves stories, but some of us occasionally need reminding."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article