The main purpose of this study was to investigate andrnidentify 11th grade students' reading preferences in AddisrnAbaba. The subject of the study were 300 randomly selectedrnstudents from four government secondary schools.rnTo achieve the objective of the study, a questionnairernwas designed and administered to the students. Thernquestionnaire had two major parts: part one aimed at gettingrnbackground information and part two was concerned with arnreading preference inventory; i.e. students were asked tornchoose and rank their 10 best reading topics, titles andrntexts. These topics, titles and texts were del iberatelyrndesigned in order to cross-check the validity of thernrespondents' responses.rnThe results of the study indicated that students'rnattitudes towards the given reading topics, titles and textsrnwere similar irrespective of sex. Both males and femalesrnchose the same top ten reading topics, but there was arndifference in ranking wi thin the top ten choices. Thus,rnmales preferred in descending order of popularity: detectivernstories, adventure stories, research and technology, lovernstories, humour, health, sports, biography, culture and sexrneducation. Females preferred love stories, humour, health,rnbiography, research and technology, sports, culture, sexrneducation, detective stories, and adventure stories, in arndescending order.rnOn the basis of the findings, recommendations concerningrnthe kinds of reading texts to be included in the textbooks ,rnthe development of students' attitudes towards Englishrnwritten materials, and the need for further investigation onrnstudents' reading preferences are stated.