The aim of this study is to specify the impacts of Covid-19 Pandemic on reading interests and reading preferences of Turkish language teacher candidates. The study employed the survey model and data were obtained Questionnaire which was created by the researchers. It is determined that the participants of the study have enjoyed reading and have had reading habits pre-pandemic or post-pandemic periods. The findings have revealed that: (1) the participants could not spare more time to reading due to ‘lesson density’, (2) most of the participants are not avid readers, (3) participants like reading ‘literary works’ and ‘author and topic of the book’ is highly significant for choosing books. Participants chose to purchase books online during pandemic period while they purchased books from bookstores in pre-pandemic period. The number of people who frequently use libraries and who have difficulty in reaching books which they want to read increased during lockdown period. The participants of this study regard ‘having reading habit’ significant for their profession. Prospective teachers consider that ‘reading culture’ is affected positively by the pandemic period but not by the technological developments and they find ‘quality of written texts’ is significant for improving ‘reading culture’. According to the results of ‘Paired Sample T-test’, a meaningful difference could not be found between having reading habit and the number of books read per year before or after pandemic period. It is seen that using library habit changed positively during post-pandemic period. In this study, it is found that Covid-19 Pandemic has a negative effect on reaching the books and there is a statistically meaningful difference between pre-pandemic and post-pandemic periods.

Reading culture, Covid-19 pandemic, Turkish language teacher candidates.