One in three Britons would rather read a book this summer

4 July 2023

Who said no one reads books anymore?

While television remains the preferred method of summertime “escape” in Britain, with just over one in two people tuning in, reading comes in as the next best means of putting the worries of the world aside. This according to data released by the London based Publishers Association:

Second only to watching TV (54%), 33% of respondents say that books offer them the best form of escapism when they are having a bad day. This is ahead of streaming TV (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%).

In other good news for authors in Britain, 2022 was a bumper year for book sales, with a record six-hundred and sixty nine million physical books being sold, an increase of four percent on 2021.