Encouraging news about bookstores suggests that reading is on the rise, in part thanks to young readers and BookTok.
Reading is declining, as people spend more time looking at screens, but I’m pretty sure that anyone reading this article reads more books than average. In 2022, one survey found that the average American adult read about 12 books per year, though this number was a drop from around 15 a decade earlier. According to another survey, in 2023, only about 54% of Americans read a book. There is hope, however, as young adults are embracing books and buying more of them from bookstores.
The number of bookstores is growing
In recent decades, the number of brick-and-mortar bookstores has decreased as online bookselling has become the norm. But some reassuring statistics have shown an increase in the number of bookstores, at least in the US and UK. Independent bookstores are increasing in the US, with an additional 200 bookstores in 2023. In the UK, the chain Waterstones recently announced that they are opening 10 new stores, adding to their 320 existing stores.
Waterstones says that young people are reading more, in part due to the influence of BookTok (videos about books on TikTok; 63.5 million posts at the time of this writing), and that fiction book increased by more than 12% in 2024. Fans have been lining up for midnight launches of some new books; something that hasn’t been seen since the days of the Harry Potter books.
Popular genres
TikTok recommendations sell books; so much so that many bookstores now have “TikTok made me buy it” sections. Some of the biggest sellers are in genres such as romance, romantasy, fantasy, and crime fiction.
But TikTok isn’t just responsible for the growth in sales of genre fiction. A few years ago, reading Samuel Richardson’s 1,500-page epistolary novel Clarissa from the 18th century became a trend on TikTok. While my use of TikTok is not indicative of broader trends on the platform, I see people extolling such long books as John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, and Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo. Many younger readers like the challenge of putting down their phones and immersing themselves in these long books.
The joys of book browsing
I love the atmosphere in bookstores. It is relatively quiet, perhaps with some soft music playing, and people move about slowly as they drift from table to table, from shelf to shelf. No one is in a hurry, and everyone there is participating in a shared cultural experience. People in bookstores generally look happy.
Unlike on Amazon, which holds the lion’s share of online book sales, you can browse books without your searches being interrupted by sponsored listings, ads, and autoplay videos. I just searched for an author on Amazon UK, and the first three results were “Sponsored” listings that had nothing to do with the author in question, polluting search results, trying to get me to buy something very different from what I’m looking for.
Booksellers in physical bookstores curate the selection of books they present to readers, choosing what to highlight in their stores’ windows, what to put on tables, and what to recommend. The serendipity of viewing books that are not organized by algorithm, but rather by a staff who loves reading, helps you discover new authors and titles whose books might be on a table next to books you love. And the tactile element of being able to pick up a book and read its back cover, leaf through it, and read its first pages without a screen adds to the analog experience.
Understanding how books are sold
A few decades ago, I worked in a bookstore in France. For three years, I sold fiction and nonfiction books, searching for titles that customers were looking for, recommending books for people wanting a gift, and talking about books with people to whom they matter. As a bookseller, you better understand what readers enjoy and what they seek out in books. And you learn from your customers, getting recommendations from them and discussing your favorites.
This experience helped me understand how books are sold. I learned how people look for books, whether they’ve heard about them in the media, from a friend, or whether they are just searching for something to read with nothing in mind. I also learned how booksellers decide which books to buy, which can be based on an author’s reputation or the media, but also often by individual preferences.
Bookstores foster community
If you’re lucky enough to have an independent bookstore near you, you know how this creates a community of readers. These bookstores host author events, get-togethers, and often provide a place where you can just sit and read, checking out new books.
Some chain bookstores also welcome authors for readings and signings, something that you cannot do online. Sure, you can set up a Zoom call with hundreds of people, but meeting an author in person and having them sign your book helps strengthen the connection between writers and readers.
Covers matter
When visiting physical bookstores, you realize the importance of book covers. When you scroll down a page on a website, you see covers with text next to them providing the title and author. In a bookstore, you only see books and their covers displayed on tables. The colors, fonts, pictures, and overall impression covers create can nudge you to pick a book up and check it out.
Covers are just as important for online sales, and if you’re self-publishing, you understand how essential it is to have a cover that communicates the genre and style of your book. Seeing so many covers in a bookstore can help you see what is trending in your genre.
With Amazon’s dominance of book sales around the world, it’s good to see that more young people are reading and that bookstores are still surviving, and even growing in some areas.
Kirk McElhearn is a writer, podcaster, and photographer. He is the author of Take Control of Scrivener, and host of the podcast Write Now with Scrivener. He also offers one-to-one Scrivener coaching.