To celebrate the resurgence in New Zealanders’ reading – particularly
amongst our nation’s younger readers – Whitcoulls is holding Love Books Week,
to particularly recognise the importance of this area of the business, which
will run from May 9 to 15, 2016.
Inspired by our nation of ‘book worms’, Whitcoulls has deliberately
timed its Love Books Week campaign to coincide with the must-see calendar
event, the Auckland Writers Festival (AWF), 10-15 May 2016. In recognition of
the huge contribution AWF makes to the literary landscape, Whitcoulls would
like to congratulate the Festival committee for once again putting together
such a stellar line-up of international and local authors.
According to the latest Whitcoulls sales figures, books are thriving.
The range and quantity of books sold to their customers continues to grow,
added to which is the resurgence in reading, and in sourcing reading material
locally, rather than from overseas.
Whitcoulls Book Manager Joan Mackenzie says, “We’re hearing from many of
our customers that e-books are no longer their preferred format; they’re just
another alternative to traditional reading habits. Electronic books make ideal
travelling companions, but after their initial popularity, it seems they no
longer dominate peoples’ reading time. People love physical books because they
don’t run out of battery, you can drop them and they won’t break – and they’re
great on the beach!”
Whitcoulls is especially pleased to see the consistent increase in
children’s book sales. Younger readers have always had the choice of formats in
which to read – the technology of e-readers and e-books was never a new
excitement for them, and it’s been fascinating to see the degree to which young
readers are clearly choosing actual books over technology. “We believe this is
a great platform for the development of their education, knowledge and
wellbeing, and it seems highly likely that this generation will continue to
read books into the future. This tells us that books are here to stay and that
the many predictions about their demise in recent years have been overstated”.
The fiction category is flourishing, despite it being the first genre to
be disrupted by technology. There are as many – or more – wonderful books being
written by very talented authors, as there have ever been.
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