For a number of years we have all been told the digital revolution is going to overtake all our lives and we will no longer be reading books, magazines, newspapers.
However, here we are in 2016 with books on the rise again. Why are we seeing this increase in book sales?
The millenials, people who were seen to be leading the digital revolution are now turning their backs on digital copies and going back to good old fashioned printed and bounded books.
Amazon with their huge online presence and very competitive internet pricing have opened their very own book store in their home town of Seattle with plans to roll this out further afield.
There are people out there who will buy both a digital and printed copy. A digital book to read on commutes and a physical book to sit at home on a book shelf, like a work of art. Books are an art form, seeing a well printed, hardback book, bound to a high quality, encapsulating the history of a manufacturing process which has stood the test of time and reinvented itself time and time again.
The process for buying a book can be just as much an art as the book itself. There are still people out there who will go to a book store and comb the shelves for the next installment of their reading journey, The smell of a brand new book resonating from each page as it is turned. The words jumping off the page and immersing you in the story. The accomplishment felt when the last page is turned.
Research has shown that a physical book is better for learning in schools and universities. There are clear advantages of kindles, ipads and alike but there are also pit falls of other apps etc on these devices which will navigate the reader away from where they should be.
We recently made a visit to London Book Fair recently and were pleasantly surprised by the footfall throughout. Meeting with a number of publishers and printers who were remarking on the rise of the market currently.
There is a place for both mediums going forward, go pick up a book and remind yourselves books may have been the past but they are very much the present and future too. Make an investment in a work of art today and support the authors, publishers and printers out there who produce these items we take for granted.