Canadians Read more than 2.7-million books in one week
A press release from the National Reading Campaign:
The numbers are in for the first National Book Count: more than two and a half million books were purchased or borrowed in Canada from January 10-16:
2,714, 946 books to be exact. The Book Count is organized by the National Reading Campaign as part of an ongoing effort to promote a passion for reading in Canada.
1,110,568 books were sold by retailers including Indigo Books & Music, Amazon.ca and other national chains as well as over 260 independent bookstores across the country. 1,604,378 books were borrowed from 22 participating public library systems.*
2,714, 946 books in seven days means that in a typical week in January, Canadians bought or borrowed as many books as they purchased tickets to the top box office film. In fact, it is likely that more people picked a book than watched a game on Hockey Night in Canada. We do so much to promote film and to encourage youth to play hockey. Do we do as much to advance reading? The NRC believes our nation can do much more.
The National Book Count provides us with a figure against which we can measure the success of our campaign in future years. While the number of books bought and borrowed is encouraging we are also concerned by the number of young people who in recent surveys report a declining enjoyment in reading. The economic focus of much of our education system and existing programs for New Canadians and Aboriginal Canadians does little to encourage a love of reading and passionate civic engagement.
What books were tracked?
This is the first time that combined sales and library circulation for books has been tabulated in Canada. Book sales were collected by three book sale aggregators: BookNet Canada, BookManager, and la Société de gestion de la Banque de titres de langue française (BTLF) and book circulation was tracked by the Canadian Urban Libraries Council.
The numbers were collected and combined by the National Reading Campaign and cover 22 public library systems, 80 percent of the English language book retail market and 40 percent of the French language retail market across Canada. No individual consumer information was collected. Online print book sales were captured from major online retailers including Amazon.ca and Indigo.ca. Digital downloads from public libraries were included but not from retailers.
*The Canadian Urban Libraries Council tracked circulation figures for the public libraries in Brampton, Burlington, Burnaby, Calgary, Edmonton, Gatineau, Greater Victoria, Halifax, Hamilton, Kitchener, Markham, Ottawa, Regina, Richmond, Saskatoon, Surrey, Thunder Bay, Toronto, Vancouver, Vancouver Island, Whitby, and Winnipeg. The circulation figure covers over 11.2 million Canadians.
About the National Reading Campaign
In 2008 a group of concerned librarians, parent activists, authors, booksellers, teachers, publishers and corporate leaders came together with a common goal -- developing a national reading strategy for Canada and Quebec. Out of this initiative the TD National Reading Summits were born. Summit I was held in Toronto in 2009, Summit II will be in Montreal On January 2oth and 21st and Summit III is planned for Vancouver in 2012. For more information on the program, speakers or information on last year’s summit visit www.nationalreadingcampaign.ca
The Book Count is being released on the eve of the second TD National Reading Summit in Montreal where more work will be presented on reading as it pertains to babies, school children, youth, Aboriginal people, and new Canadians, with a look at the very effective reading promotion practices currently being pioneered in Shenzen, China. Working groups across Canada have spent the last year assessing existing reading programs, or the lack thereof, in a number of different constituencies across Canada. This information will be reported and discussed as we move forward to developing a national reading strategy.
For media enquires please contact:
Jamie Broadhurst
jamie@raincoast.com
604-323-3330
