Many countries have low literacy rate, and where did Indonesia rank? Was it in the top 10 countries with the highest literacy rate? Or top 20? Indonesia ranked the 60^th or the second-least literate country in the world (2016). Was it because Indonesians were too lazy to read books? Apparently, that was not the main cause, but rather the low availability of books. Compared to the number of readers, there was only 1 book for 3 people, meaning to read 1 book, we have to wait for 2 other people to finish it.

Statistics from 2 years ago shows a reading culture of a country through the number of annual publications. There are 400,000 annual publications in the US, almost 600,000 in China, 150,000 in Japan, and how many do we have in Indonesia? KOMPAS stated that there were 20,000 publications in Indonesia. Twenty thousand compared to 400,000 in the US, and 80,000 in Germany whose total population is only 83 million. 

In this modern world, young people must read. Young people should care about their surroundings, the economy, the history, and reading about them will provide the young generation with an understanding and care to eventually make well-informed decisions.