Reading as a Need of Today's Students and the Ways of Meeting it

This article analyzes psychological, pedagogical, and literary aspects of reading needs development. A survey was conducted to identify the ways, means, conditions, goals, and content of reading as a need of today's students. The survey was aimed to find out what ways of obtaining information the students prefer- with the help of gadgets or printed editions, the students’ reading rituals, reading habits (skimming, fractal reading), reading preferences (classical, academic, periodical literature), to determine the main motives that make them read. Special attention was paid to participation in reading clubs, marathons, forums, and visiting libraries.The results of the study showed that students prefer to read paper books, although all use gadgets to find, read and process information; reading as a form of leisure is relevant to most of the surveyed students, it prevails over video games / watching videos, almost all have certain reading rituals; most students do not have such reading habits as fractal reading, skimming, notes, etc. This all shows the necessity for further popularization of reading, visiting libraries as the center of culture, development of positive reading habits and techniques, and involving students participate in reading clubs, forums, and meetings.