"The multimedia terminals such as smartphones and iPads easily distract students' attention," Lu said.

The limitations of digital reading compared with holding a paperback are also echoed by the public in general. According to the CAPP poll, 74.4 percent of respondents aged 18 to 70 still prefer holding a paperback when reading a book.

Unworthy books

According to a recent nationwide survey conducted by the China Youth Daily, more than 73 percent of 9,116 respondents said that there were too many trashy books on the market.

Wang Feng, a Beijing resident, told China Youth Daily it is getting increasingly difficult to find books worth reading. Wang said that during his recent shopping trip in a bookstore, he found shelves filled with shoddy novels, self-help books promising personal success and guides to managing finances. No page-turners to be found.

"I believe the ancient proverb that one can always benefit from reading a book is no longer true. Many authors write nonsense and many others plagiarize, showing no respect for readers at all," said Wang.

Bai Ye, a senior research fellow with the Institute of Literature under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, blames Chinese people's loss of interest in reading on a deluge of trashy books on the market. He said that a large population has experienced difficulty in finding a worthy book to read.

Nearly 62 percent of respondents to China Youth Daily survey complained of publishing companies' obsession with making money. More than 55 percent said that the publishers lack independent thought, and more than 45 percent referred to a shallow reading culture. Almost 56 percent said that trashy books were "submerging" good ones.

Bai said that many publishing professionals lack good taste and use bestselling genres as their only guide in selecting titles. "They are manufacturers of trashy books as well as participants in a vulgar culture. It is a shame that some of them take pride in their actions," said Bai.

Li Mingsheng, a highly acclaimed author, said that many publishing houses weaned from government subsidies became totally profit-driven in selecting titles to publish, which resulted in the surge of trashy books.

Li said that to avoid the production of more trashy books, authors should not simply cater to some people's vulgar tastes, but that publishing professionals should give up profit-oriented operating guidelines and reviewers should recommend only truly excellent works to readers.

Email us at: lili@bjreview.com

Reading Survey 2012

Chinese people read an average of 4.39 paperbacks, 77.2 newspapers, 6.56 magazines and 2.35 e-books in 2012.

People aged 18 to 70 spent an average of over 15 minutes reading books every day, compared with almost 99 minutes watching TV and nearly 47 surfing the Internet.

Over 31 percent of people spent a daily average of 40 minutes or more reading from cellphones, 13 percent more than in 2011, with content mainly related to entertainment.

Among those netizens involved in digital reading, more than 40 percent were willing to pay for content, down by 1.7 percentage points annually.

Only 45.8 percent of those who read publications on their cellphones reported a willingness to pay for content.

(Source: Chinese Academy of Press and Publications)