Reading is for minority, Nobel winner Saramago says

LISBON, June 2 (Reuters) Nobel Prize-winning writer Jose Saramago says reading books is only for a minority of people, criticising a Portuguese plan to boost reading among children as useless.

''Reading always was and always will be something for a minority. We aren't going to demand a passion for reading from everybody,'' Lusa news agency quoted the 83-year-old author as telling a library gathering in Portugal late on Wednesday.

Although Saramago sits on an honorary panel as part of the Socialist government's programme to boost reading in western Europe's poorest country, he said trying to stimulate an appetite for reading ''is not worth it, it's useless''.

Saramago, known for his outspoken views, won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1998 after writing such novels as ''The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis'' and ''The Stone Raft''.

The programme, approved by the cabinet yesterday, calls in part for daily reading in kindergartens.

Culture Minister Isabel Pires de Lima said she was surprised by Saramago's remarks.

''I don't see how actions that look to promote and democratise reading can be seen as secondary,'' she told private TSF radio.

REUTERS SI RS0934