Intercultural Reader Communication in the Digital Age

The article explores the problems of the transformation of reading among youth in the digital age. The research focuses on factors such as the shift in reading formats (abandoning traditional/paper books and switching to electronic and/or digital reading), exclusion of the library as a social institution of reading support from leisure practice of young people, the dominant function of Internet resources in reading preferences, lack of qualified advice from a "teacher of literature". The study, which was conducted internationally (Russia, the Czech Republic, the USA), draws attention to the particular interest of the analysed age group in the fantasy genre. The authors of the article draw attention to the need to develop a systematic approach to the introduction of digital formats in reading fiction, taking into account the identified preferences of the readers. The international study of the level of reading culture confirmed the hypothesis that fantasy is not only one of the ways of socialising a personality, but also a means of building an intercultural dialogue.