On May 26 it began in Madrid the 76th edition of the Madrid Book Fair, an event that bet like every year since 1933 to become one of the cultural references of our country and yes, also to give a nth opportunity to a literature that during the last five years seemed to suffer from various factors. Fortunately, yesterday June 11, the last day of the Madrid Book Fair, a figure of 8.8 million euros in books sold and an optimistic 8% increase in sales compared to last year.
Necessary revivals
Photography: Madrid Book Fair
Until 367 booths have hosted during the last sixteen days a new edition of the Book Fair in the Retiro park in Madrid. An appointment in which all the genres, authors and cultural currents of our country and beyond our borders (Portugal was the guest country this year) have mixed in the form of interviews, colorful exhibitors, events and an influx of all parts of Spain. It was a new attempt to revive a stagnant literature in a country where 36% of its population does not read and the economic crisis takes some collateral damage.
And without foreseeing it, as an optimistic cry, good news was confirmed yesterday: the Madrid Book Fair had sold up to 8.8 million euros in books, 8% more compared to the 8.200.000 sold in 2016. A considerable increase that confirms the resurgence of a culture revived by the economic recovery, a greater literary variety that emerged from the Internet, fierce bets from classic editorials and titles such as Patria, by Fernando Aramburu or Todo esto te daré, by Dolores Redondo, which have returned to restore faith in literature as an industry.
However, not everything stays at that 8%, since the surveys carried out to the attendees during the Book Fair have yielded even more interesting results, such as that the 66% of the attendees were women (compared to 34% male attendance), which confirms the female reading trend in our country, while 20% of the attendees claimed to come from outside Madrid, a figure that highlights the importance of the Madrid Book Fair as a national cultural phenomenon.
Regarding the consumption of literature by attendees, 55% said they had spent between 20 and 50 euros on books, 27% between 50 and 100 euros and 10% more than 100 euros only on literature.
Percentages that complement those 8.8 million euros collected during the 76th edition of the Book Fair that confirms the optimism for a literature to continue consuming, loving but, especially, infecting that almost half of the Spanish population allergic to letters.
Were you one of the attendees at the Madrid Book Fair 2017?