How Canadian Readers Discover and Obtain Books, New Data From BookNet Canada Leisure Study
From a BookNet Canada Blog Post by :
Who are this year’s readers? The majority of readers surveyed identify as female, are partnered, are parents, and work full-time with a household income between $25,000 and $50,000. Most readers live in cities or urban areas (48%), followed by suburban areas (32%).
Over half of all readers have at least one child (53%) and 37% have children living at home. Adults living with partners make up 29% of readers, while 19% live alone, 8% live with a roommate(s), and 7% are empty nesters.
Almost a quarter of readers are between 25 and 34 years old (23%), closely followed by the 35- to 44-year-old age bracket (22%), and those 55 to 64 years old (20%).
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How Canadian Readers Acquire Books
Where do readers acquire most of their books? Does it differ depending on the book format? Short answer: Yes.
Longer answer: Readers mostly acquire print books from the library (27%), physical bookstores (21%), or an online retailer (18%). They also get books from “someone else” (16%) — maybe family, friends, or that coworker who keeps pushing A Game of Thrones on everyone.
Readers mostly acquire ebooks from an online retailer or app (36%), from a website offering free downloads (24%), the library (21%), or a subscription service (12%).
For audiobooks, readers mostly acquire them from the library (24%), a subscription service (22%), a website offering free downloads (18%), or an online retailer (11%).
Read the Complete Blog Post
Including data (and infographic) on how Canadians discovery books (by format).
See Also: Canadians and Their Leisure Time: Leisure Study Part 1
Filed under: Data Files, Libraries, News

About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.