Why Malaysians dislike reading

There was some newspaper article which stated that Malaysians had a pretty low reading rate compared to citizens of other countries. I have not done any survey on this, but when I look at profiles on Facebook, I do tend to see the "books I like" field either blank or bearing the words "I hate books".

So why do we, as a people, dislike books so?

When I was a kid, my dad was bringing me around. I brought a storybook with me to entertain myself. Upon seeing that I was (shock and horror!) reading, one of my dad's friends remarked to him "Wow your son is really hardworking!". So that might be a reason why we dislike reading; we associate it with schoolwork and study and exams and low marks and parents shouting at us for the low marks.

But then, I'm sure kids in countries like Japan and Korea get pushed hard in their studies too, probably harder than us. Yet they read more. Japan was shown to have one of the highest rates of reading in the world, and their authors are paid like rock stars.

Perhaps then a reason why we read less is because we have to learn multiple languages. A local Chinese has to learn at the very least Malay and English, and quite likely Mandarin too, and maybe some dialects such as Cantonese and Hokkien. Learning too many languages might mean that we master none, therefore have little deep interest in any. Hence our disinterest in literature.

So in the end, I'm not sure whether our vaunted capacity to converse in many languages is truly a blessing or not, as many of us never reach mastery in any of them.