Saturday, December 31, 2011

Harry Potter's Hermione is voted most popular dream date for teenage readers


Enlarge Date material: Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter books is the most popular fictional dream date for teenage readers
Date material: Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter books is the most popular fictional dream date for teenage readers
The character of Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter books is the most popular fictional dream date for teenage readers, according to a survey.
Almost a quarter of the teenagers surveyed (23 per cent) nominated her character, played by  in the films, ahead of Jacob Black (14 per cent) and Edward Cullen (10 per cent) from the Twilight books.
The survey, carried out to mark World Book Day today, also identified favourite teenage reads past and present.
One in ten adults who took part in the survey said their favourite book when they were a teenager was The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole.
JK Rowling's stories about the teenage wizard were top of the poll of today's teenagers with 31 per cent naming them as favourites.
JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, George Orwell's 1984 and The Diary of Anne Frank were the only books on both lists.
Almost a third of teenagers (30 per cent) said they only read a couple of books a year, with 19 per cent saying they read a book a week.
Rachel Russell, from World Book Day 2011, said: 'In the year that World Book Day is focusing on helping teenagers celebrate books and reading, it's interesting to see what tastes and traits young readers today share with readers of the past.
Undated handout photo of Harry Potter actress Emma Watson modelling Burberry
FILM: The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010) with Kristen Stewart as Bella Swan, Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen and Taylor Lautner as Jacob Black
Good date: Almost a quarter of the teenagers surveyed nominated Hermione, played by  in the films, left, ahead of Jacob Black, right back, and Edward Cullen, right front, from the Twilight books

'Our results show that in a world of digital media teenagers still love books, and are enjoying classics novels as well as contemporary best-sellers.
'It would be interesting to see answers to the same questions from teenagers in another generation's time.'
Opinion Matters surveyed 1,583 adults and 505 teenagers aged 13-18 for the survey.