Since the invention of printing, books have been one of the most important sources of information about the surrounding world. Although now the Internet has taken the lead, books continue to be the source of not only knowledge but also ideas and inspiration.
The World Book and Copyright Day established by UNESCO has been celebrated for just several decades and is celebrated on April 23rd every year . This relatively new holiday served as an inspiration for Picodi.com Analysis Team to check how, when, why and whether at all Pakistanis buy books and how readers feel about literature.
- 34% of respondents from Pakistan admitted that they don’t read much or are not interested in books at all.
- Demand for books in online bookstores rises the most in November (14% of all annual transactions).
- Only 62% of Pakistanis bought at least one book over the past year (which is quite a moderate number in comparison with over 80% in Turkey, Russia and Spain).
- Among the most popular genres are adventure literature, romance, sci-fi and fantasy, historical fiction and thrillers.
- 37% of the respondents think that book prices are excessive or way too high.
This report is based on the internal data of a global e-commerce platform Picodi.com regarding transactions in online bookstores and a survey conducted in March 2019 among 7800 respondents from 41 countries.