One of the few good things the current world situation has brought is an increase of book sales worldwide.
The bad news is that traditional bookstores are only noticing this positive effect through their online platforms, even in countries where the isolation measures haven’t been as draconian such as Sweden.
According to the American Booksellers Association (www.bookweb.org) there are two literary genres that have seen a massive increase in sales and those would be cookbooks and fantasy books, including science fiction. The appetite of the public for more reading materials seems to have grown rapidly in the last weeks, and the demand for innovative recipes and exciting worlds to discover appears to be a constant phenomenon.
This in turn might have a positive effect in other areas. Some readers are re-discovering the pleasures of literature in general, while others are venturing into the undiscovered territories of fantasy books. Will this be a lasting trend, or just a product of unusual circumstances? We will only get the answer in the months to come.
