Super Thursday & Shelfies!

Oct 8th was celebrated as Super Thursday across UK in bookstores. This is the day when in preparation of the holiday season, close to 500 new titles were launched. 

Paperback editions have long been considered as a perfect gift and what better occasion than Christmas to fill the stockings with!

The last few months, UK book retailers have witnessed a mind boggling 10pc growth and spurred the revival of the sagging fortunes of leading book retailers with Waterstones leading the pack. 

What would have spurred this growth? Many attribute it to the trend of Shelfies amongst the young readers who buy books, read them and build up a collection and take "Shelfies" with their collection. 

Leading literary clubs have started inviting young readers to their clubs and this ushers a major change in itself. 

What implications does this have on e-readers? In the last 6-8 years, e-readers had been gradually replacing the physical books on the store shelves but with the visible surge, the physical books are fighting a winning battle in regaining this space, albeit slowly. 

While thanksgiving and Christmas is expected to spur the impetus further, I'm warmly tucked in with a book to watch how the "return of the paperbacks" battle unfolds.