Covid-19 lockdowns give reading a boost across Europe

Athens, April 24 : The world has been in pandemic mode for way over a year now, forcing businesses and entertainment venues to close and prompting people stuck in quarantine to revisit old hobbies.
One of the few age-old pastimes that has been left largely untouched by Covid-19 is reading. As people have time on their hands, they turn to books in increasing numbers, as evidenced by surveys and interviews conducted on the eve of World Book and Copyright Day, celebrated annually on April 23, Xinhua news agnecy reported on Friday.
While the traditional book retail industry struggles to survive the recurring lockdowns, the e-book business is well and truly booming in Europe and beyond.
A survey conducted by Nielsen Book in the United Kingdom (UK) in May 2020 has revealed that British people almost doubled the amount of time they spent reading books since the lockdowns began. Forty-one percent of UK adults said they were reading more, and the amount of time spent reading increased from around 3.5 hours per week to six hours on average. Only ten percent of the respondents said they were reading less.
And this phenomenon is far from unique to Europe.
“During the lockdown, loyal readers became more loyal due to the restrictions and the larger amount of time they had,” Nestoras Poulakos, co-owner of Vakxikon Media & Publishing Group in Greece, told Xinhua in a recent interview.