Students at Hebei Academy of Fine Arts on World Book Day on April 23. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Zhu Anshun, a guest professor of the Chinese Culture Academy of Chongqing and director of the Zhonghua Book Co's classics-education center, says the frequent appearance of best-sellers, and online and foreign novels on those lists suggest young people have more diverse reading resources today.

"It's a positive phenomenon. It's quite OK that best-sellers and online novels have become the most popular books among university students," he says.

"But for literature majors, it's necessary to also read more essential classics from traditional culture, such as The Analects of Confucius."

He says it's good that students read novels out of interest but also believes that they also need a base in certain classical and liberal-education books.

Hangzhou University of Electronic Science and Technology's library director Chen Lin says the development of internet and mobile devices has diversified people's approaches to reading, so paper books' lending has conspicuously decreased in recent years.

There hasn't been a substantial drop in overall reading when digital forms are accounted for, she adds.

Tianjin Foreign Studies University graduate student Zhang Zhengya says she and her schoolmates don't frequently visit the library to borrow books.

The 25-year-old journalism major, who prefers serious reading, used to borrow three or four books a month as an undergraduate.

"I have less time to read (for pleasure) as a graduate student. When I go to the library now, I just find the book I want and leave rather than browse for interesting titles."

She and most students buy their favorite books, including e-books, online rather than borrow from the library, she explains.

"Then we don't have to worry about due dates and can read it whenever we want," she says.

A recent survey of over 900 university students by the China University Media Union finds 31 percent read less than half an hour a day; 42 percent read between half an hour and an hour and a half a day; and less than 10 percent read more than two hours a day.