The amount spent on books has been increasing in recent years: In 2022 it would have been around €210 million and this year it is foreseen to rise further, around six to seven percent revealed Pedro Sobral, president of the Associação Portuguesa de Editores e Livreiros (APEL).

“62 percent of Portuguese people bought books in the last year”, 2022, said Pedro Sobral, during the I Meeting “O Plano Nacional de Leitura no Ensino Superior”, which took place at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, in Lisbon.

However the president of APEL warns that the increase may not be synonymous with more books read, taking into account another study, carried out in 2021 for the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, which reported 61 percent of Portuguese people do not read books.

For the president of APEL “it’s not that absurd” that these two ideas are not contradictory, since many of the books are purchased during the Christmas season and are given as gifts.

The study also reported, 53 percent of books purchased in 2022 were for gifting and 82 percent of books were purchased for personal consumption, added the president of APEL.

In 2019, for example, 67 percent of book purchases were made between September and December, that is, “during the Christmas season”.

The areas where book purchases decreased the most are in the Porto region, interior and coast, recalled Pedro Sobral, calling attention to the fact that buying books does not necessarily lead to better reading habits.

At a meeting on December 19, Gulbenkian presented the results of the first “Survey on Reading Habits of Students in the 1st Term of Higher Education”, which attempted to characterise students’ reading habits, perceptions and motivations.