“Welsh coal miners even had their own libraries. A study of the records of one them revealed that the number of books checked out equaled 86 annually for each miner who was a member. This culture of reading was so strong that these tough, working-class men would boast to one another that they had read every book in the library.”
The entire article is fascinating:
http://www.etsjets.org/files/JETS-PDFs/52/52-3/JETS%2052-3%20519-535%20Larsen.pdf