More People Turning to Books Over Streaming to ‘Escape’ This Summer

New polling by the Publishers Association has found that people are turning to books and reading as a form as escapism this summer. 

A third of respondents say that books offer them the best form of escapism when they are having a bad day. This is ahead of streaming television (32%), looking at social media (27%), listening to radio (24%), going to the pub (21%), going to the cinema (16%) and listening to a podcast (14%). Only watching television (54%) has higher figures.

Dan Conway, CEO of the Publishers Association said: “The polling not only shows the importance of books to peoples’ mental health and well-being, but is a testament to their longevity and value. Books are a great way for us all to escape from our everyday routines, and if we are able to share that with our friends, families, and more widely, we could be making a huge difference to people’s lives without even realising it.”

In addition to this, it was found that members of the public are overwhelmingly likely to retain, reuse or recycle their books. Two-fifths of respondents stated they keep the book for themselves, followed by 34% who pass it on to a friend or family member; 33% give their used books to charity shops, 12% sell them online, and only 7% throw it out.

The polling was released as the UK's Publishers Association launches its second annual ‘Insights Dashboard’, following the ‘Year in Publishing’ summary that was launched in April. This once again showed growth for the sector, with total sales for the UK’s publishing industry reaching £6.9 billion, up 4% from 2021. Around 669 million physical books were also sold last year. This is the highest overall level ever recorded.

The export market has played a huge role in the industry’s success in 2022 with an 8% increase, which takes its total to £4.1 billion. 

“The UK’s publishing industry is booming and continues to show the vital role it plays amongst the wider creative industries," said Conway. "We look forward to seeing how this grows and progresses this year”.