Pandemic has increased the number of Italians reading books

The Covid-19 pandemic, aided by the forced confinement to which all Italians have been subjected, has increased the number of readers in the country. This was noted by theItalian Publishers Association, which, through its survey of citizens aged between 15 and 74 (this is the survey La lettura e in cosumi culturali nell’anno dell’emergenza, edited together with Cepell - Centro per il libro e la lettura del Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culture and Tourism) found that the percentage of those who read at least one book per year (including ebooks and audiobooks, with the former making up 30 percent of total reading and the latter 12 percent) rose to 61 percent, up from 58 percent found by the same survey in 2019 and 55 percent in 2018. Reading of ebooks (was at 25 percent in 2019) and listening to audiobooks (10 percent in 2019) also increased.

“The signs are positive,” says Paola Passarelli, director general of Libraries and Copyright at MiBACT. “The publishing and book worlds have shown that they are more resilient even than other sectors. Increasing the effects of these actions were then provided by the interventions desired by the government and implemented by the directorate.”

In terms of purchases, as many as 3.4 million Italians since the beginning of the first lockdown have bought a book for the first time in their lives using an online portal, while 2.3 million have bought an ebook for the first time. Bookstores, however, are holding out: as of October 2020, 67 percent of readers say they frequent them (they were 74 percent in 2019, however, but the closures certainly influenced the decline: this is evidenced by the fact that only 20 percent of readers said they went to bookstores in May 2020).

“The data on reading,” emphasizes the president of the Italian Publishers Association, Riccardo Franco Levi, “are in line with the trend of recovery in sales and are an encouragement for both publishers and public institutions, which have done much in recent months to support the world of books.”

Pandemic has increased the number of Italians reading books

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