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Germans still prefer a good book to Netflix and Spotify

The Local Germany
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Germans still prefer a good book to Netflix and Spotify
Photo: DPA

They may have a reputation for being one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world, but Germans remain surprisingly traditional in their entertainment choices, a new survey shows.

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Maybe it is not so surprising seeing as Germany is the country that gave the world the printing press - but it seems that the nation still has a surprisingly strong attachment to the printed word.

A survey released on Friday by YouGov shows that Germans are over twice as likely to regularly read a book as they are to use a streaming service such as Netflix or to read an ebook on their Kindle or a similar device.

Over half of Germans read a book at least once a week, whereas around one in five use movie streaming services and only 17 percent read ebooks.

Still, reading a book still wasn’t Germany’s most beloved pastime, with watching the television still way out ahead of the pack - 89 percent of Germans still sit in front of the telly at least once a week.

In terms of what Germans like to buy for entertainment, the written word came out on top.

A total of 53 percent of Germans said they’d bought themselves a book over the last six months, while 38 percent said they’d done so as a gift for another person.

This means that sitting down with a copy of their favourite Goethe or Nietzsche (or more likely E.L. James) is still more popular among Germans than going to the cinema or spending their hard earned cash on a CD or a DVD.

When asked what form of entertainment they could do without books once again came up trumps.

Only 13 percent of respondents said they could live without books, whereas 48 percent said audiobooks were not important to them and 40 percent said they could easily do without music streaming services like Spotify.

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