Book Trends and the Future

O'Brien, Sarah

Kellogg, Carolyn. (2016) Six Book Trends for 2016: Look Into The Future. Los Angeles Times.

Although this article is not directly about libraries and their collections, I think it is important to implement the trends this writer suggests. It was reported that 571 million print books were sold in 2015, while ebooks sales stayed at 25% this past year. We all worry that print is dead, luckily this statistic proves otherwise. With print books coming back, Harper Lee’s much anticipated second book “Go Set A Watchman”, David McCullough’s book about the Wright Brothers and Jeff Kinney’s Diary of Wimpy Kid Series, along with the spike in coloring book sales, print books are on the way back, which means libraries are getting busy. With magazines going by the wayside and bookstores closing left and right, libraries are full of titles and material just waiting to be discovered. With box office success like Star Wars, Harry Potter and highly anticipated television shows like Game of Thrones, the fantasy doesn’t stop after two hours. Publishers and Marketers want to keep fans in the loop, buy Game of Thrones action figures and games, visit theme parks (have you been to Harry Potter World yet?) and stock up on every book ever written about Star Wars because it’s out there. It’s not just about the movie experience anymore, we live in world where we can further explore the worlds that authors create.  And although journalism is taking new shapes, we know that with the success of podcasts like Serial, the Netflix original docu-series, Making a Murder and the fantastic reporter and sensational nonfiction writer, Jon Krakauer, it’s clear that deeply reported nonfiction stories have a ready audience.  The last point that is brought up in this article is a call to diversity in books. Toni Morrison was the last American award the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, as our country becomes more multicultural, it’s important that we have something for everyone.

Again, this article is not really discussing these trends in the library setting but I think it’s important that these trends can be used as connections to make library collections stronger, programs/events bigger and better and make the library experience as a whole an important part of our weekly routines. This article can serve as an excellent guide as we think about collection development and programming for the future. With the release of the new Star Wars film, The Force Awakens, many libraries are adopting a whole festival celebrating the world and characters George Lucas created. The same can be said with diversity in literature. This is something that we have been struggling with for years, as a Children’s Librarian I am constantly looking to publishers that focus on diverse stories and searching for authors of different ethnicities. In fact, I came across this blogger and author from London, Ann Morgan and her quest to read books from all over the world. Looking to the future of libraries, all these points and trends that the author brings up are very relevant to sustaining successful libraries.