Reports of the poor reading culture of Batswana appear periodically in the
popular media, especially the newspapers (see Baputaki, 2006; Hosia, 2007;
Seboni & Swartland, 2009). These impressionistic reports speak of an alarming
deterioration in the culture of reading in Botswana. In the sense in which it is
employed, “poor reading culture” means lack of a reading habit among children,
adolescents, and adults, both educated and illiterate. The label thus encompasses
complete illiteracy, functional illiteracy, and aliteracy (Sisulu, 2004). Without supporting evidence, the poor reading culture label is difficult
to justify for any population group in Botswana. Consequently, we, in this article,
investigate the holiday reading behavior of some junior secondary school students in the country to ascertain the extent to which the label applies to them.