Waterstones managing director James Daunt said social media trends like ‘BookTok’ on TikTok had been hugely positive. He said: “There’s been all of this innovation, but it has reinforced reading and reinforced reading real books.”
In addition, young people are listening to audiobooks, which is encouraging more book reading. The founder of Daunt Books said the wider bookselling industry was in a stronger place than a decade ago when it was threatened by Amazon and the rise of ebooks.
Mr Daunt said: “During 2013-2016, everybody was discussing ‘the rise of the ebook and the death of the physical book’ and ever since then, if you look at what young people are doing now – they’re reading proper books, which is fantastic.”
Asked what was key to Waterstones’ recovery over the last decade, he said: “Ironically enough, by doing less and less – the whole premise has been that you let each bookshop do whatever it thinks is most sensible.”
He said that it was “tremendous” to meet the Princess Royal at his investiture ceremony.
Mr Daunt added: “The royal family have been huge patrons of literacy and reading so one feels obviously hugely honoured.”
At Tuesday’s investiture ceremony, British Paralympic Association chief executive David Clarke was made an OBE for his services to paralympic sport.
Mr Clarke, who represented Great Britain’s blind football team at the 2012 London Paralympics, said he had a “really good chat” with the Princess Royal about the impact of the 2012 Paralympics and the upcoming games in Paris.
He told the PA news agency: “The Princess Royal is well known to be an incredible supporter of Olympic and Paralympic sport and she knows very well what it’s like through herself and her daughter to appreciate being in that incredible environment of an Olympics or Paralympics.”
Navkiran Dhaliwal is a seasoned content writer with 10+ years of experience. When she's not writing, she can be found cooking up a storm or spending time with her dog, Rain.
