The Booksellers Association of the U.K. & Ireland, in collaboration with Bookselling Scotland as well as many of the country's bookshop owners and teams, has released a new research report, The Cultural and Community Role of Scotland's Bookshops, to coincide with Scottish Book Trust's annual Book Week Scotland (November 17-23). The report draws on survey data from 53% of Scottish independent bookshops and interviews with 22 booksellers, including Waterstones. Among the key results:
Noting that Scottish bookshops "are community anchors, bringing people together and supporting them, fostering literacy and reading for pleasure, and promoting cultural and linguistic heritage," the report calls for various actions to remove barriers to sustaining vital services and provide the bookshops with tools needed to continue to offer even greater community and culture value, including:
- Introduce £250 (about $325) culture vouchers for 16-year-olds
- Fund school author visits, including for authors of Gaelic and Scots-language titles
- Reform non-domestic tax rates to strengthen high streets
- Provide dedicated grant funding for bookshop events, including Creative Scotland establishing a dedicated budget to enable bookshops to hold writer events
- Strengthen arts and language partnerships across Scotland to improve flow of Gaelic and Scots-language titles, for example between Creative Scotland and the Gaelic Books Council
- Develop regional literary tours to boost tourism
- Encourage publishers to support bookshop events more
- Boost collaboration between libraries and bookshops to enhance cultural enrichment and community literacy
"At a time when bringing communities together and celebrating national culture is more important than ever, it is vital that we support and protect those who work tirelessly in facilitating this," said BA managing director Meryl Halls. "Scottish bookshops are unsung heroes, going above and beyond to deliver far more than selling books. This unprecedented and far-reaching report proves that bookshops are not just retail spaces; they are an essential part of Scotland's cultural fabric and deeply deserving of wider recognition, tangible support, and ongoing investment to allow them to deliver for years to come."
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In Iceland, a new survey found that the country's citizens "are spending noticeably less time reading than they did just two years ago," according to RÚV (via Iceland News), which reported that "people now devote an average of 59 minutes a day to reading or listening to books," a decline of 10 minutes since 2022. The study was commissioned by the Icelandic Literature Center in partnership with institutions including the Reykjavík City Library.
The results also showed that 19% of respondents said they never read books, up from 14%-15% in previous surveys. Overall, 51% read for less than half an hour a day or not at all. In addition, "the proportion of men who report no daily reading has risen sharply--from 18% to 24% in two years, while daily reading among women increased from 10% to 15%.
Traditional book reading dropped from 80% to 72% year-on-year, the study noted, adding that while audiobook listening and e-book reading also declined, 49% of respondents said they still subscribe to an audiobook service. An annual reading goal was set by only 10%, primarily women and younger adults.
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| Anne Diderich | |
There was better news coming from Luxembourg, however, where booksellers told the Luxembourg Times that reading is back in fashion, with young people reading more English-language books thanks to the influence of BookTok and Bookstagram communities.
Anne Diderich, owner of the Librairie Diderich in Esch-Alzette and president of the federation of Luxembourg booksellers (Fédération Luxembourgeoise des Libraires), said English is the language in which young people predominantly read, adding that it is mainly young women driving the trend: "The nice thing is that they usually come to the bookshop in groups. As if they were organizing a get-together here."
Regarding BookTok and Bookstagram, Elmira Najafi, owner of Librairie Alinéa, said, "Books presented there are in high demand. Many people come in and ask if we have a particular book they have seen on Instagram. We don't stock every viral book, only those that fit in with the Alinéa concept. We don't want to switch completely to BookTok because that simply doesn't fit in with our identity.... It inspires people. Especially those who don't know what they want to read and are too shy to ask for advice in a bookshop."