“The way of Abai” – the most popular among bloggers of Kaznet novel, according to the survey conducted in the framework of the project “Bookmate from activ”. Respondents shared the names of favorite books and books being read during the last year.
The well-known Kazakhstani bloggers were proposed to name their five favorite books and five books being read within the last year*. As a result, the “Top 5” favorite books are as follows.
The first place went to “The Way of Abai” by Mukhtar Auezov, the second place went to the novel by Mikhail Bulgakov “Master and Margarita”, the third one was given to George Orwell and his novel “1984”, the fourth and fifth places were shared by “Crime and Punishment” by Fyodor Dostoevsky and “The Golden Calf” by Ilf and Petrov respectively.
The five most widely read books of the past year included “Akbilek” by Jusipbek Aimauytov, “Three Comrades” by Erich Maria Remarque, “Red Arrow” by Sherkhan Murtaza, “Years of joy and love” by Azilhan Nurshaihov, and “Shantaram” by Gregory David Roberts.
Mukhtar Auezov, Erich Maria Remarque, Berdibek Sokpakbaev, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Sherkhan Murtaza are the authors most often referred to in both surveys.
In addition to classic works of literature, the bloggers mentioned the books, referred to the business literature, IT, historic journalism. For example, the libraries of Yerlan Sakenov, Marat Shaken, Nurlan Kulymbetov provided for such books as “McDonald’s: How the Empire has been developed” (authors: Ray Kroc, Robert Anderson), “There is an idea! History of IKEA” (authors: Ingvar Kamprad, Bertil Torekul), “Business from scratch” (author: Eric Ries), “Business in the Virgin style” (author: Richard Branson),”How Google works” (authors: Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg).
As for the female half of bloggers, it is worth noting that the list of beloved works of literature of Svetlana Poznyakova, Marina Sharipova, Madina Moldabaeva includes such novels as “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, “The American Tragedy” by Theodore Dreiser, “Seven skills of highly effective people” by Stephen Covey.
All books that are among the top five can be found in the app “Bookmate from activ”.
The app “Bookmate from activ” offers the readers an access to 650,000 books, including the latest offers, bestsellers, classics, novels, business books, in 12 languages, including almost 4,000 works in the Kazakh language. Bookmate from activ – is not just a library, but also the recommendations of the most interesting books from friends, experts and editors. Having subscribed to the service, it will be possible to read any number of books at one and the same time. The open books are available for reading without the Internet. Moreover, the users can share with each other their impressions from the read works, quotations, receive likes. The service is available for subscribers of Kcell and activ for 19 tenge per day, which then are written off the balance. Free trial period – 7 days.
“This is very handy when there is a possibility to get access to a huge volume of literature without leaving home or office. The app provides for many books, which simply cannot be found on the shelves of our bookstores, which also is an undoubted advantage of the application. And I hope that the developers will subsequently develop and expand our domestic content”, – said well-known Kazakh poet Pavel Bannikov.
“We are pleased that it is not a mistake, having bet on the partnership with Kcell in Kazakhstan – the people here really love to read and are willing to do this in new ways. The active users read in the app on average as much as 52 minutes per day, with an average session of approximately 14 minutes – the reading process is divided into short free intervals during the day. According to our information, the local readers discover for themselves 4 new books per month on average”, – says Andrey Baev, Managing Director of Bookmate.
The joint project of Bookmate and the activ brand was launched in Kazakhstan on February 5, 2016. To date, 50 000 Kazakhstanis appreciate all the benefits of the service.
“Our priority objective is to provide customers with the best services on the best conditions. Users of Bookmate from activ gain access to the world and Kazakh literature in a convenient application for the price of a cup of coffee for the month of reading. We are sure that even those who were not previously familiar with such format of reading will soon appreciate the benefits of using the service. It is not only a library, but also a social network with the recommendations, comments and the opportunity to exchange views. We plan to increase the number of works of literature in the Kazakh language, as well as to introduce in the service the books of the Kazakh school program”, – commented Marat Sadykov, Head of New Business Development Unit of Kcell JSC.
* During the survey there were received the responses from 31 popular bloggers from Almaty, Astana and Shymkent.