Fortunately, the publishing industry is increasingly focused on promoting reading, and we witnessed this firsthand during the very recent IPA conference in Kuala Lumpur. It was so recent that I’m writing these lines on the plane back to Madrid, after spending three fascinating days among people dedicated to providing books to people all over the world.
Reading was a recurring theme in the calls for freedom of expression and publishing made by Gvantsa Jobava (President of the IPA), as well as in the conversation on the SDGs moderated by James Taylor (Director of Communications and Freedom to Publish, IPA), with the participation of Romana Cacchioli (PEN International) and Roberto Banchik (Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial México), and in the discussion on diversity by Michiel Kolman (Elsevier) and Louise Stark (Hachette Australia & New Zealand). It was also present in the reflections on educational books discussed in the session moderated by Brian Gilsenan (CJ Fallon, Ireland), in the debate on Cross-cultural Storytelling and Reading for the Next Generation, moderated by publishing consultant Simon de Jocas, with the participation of Elena Pasoli (Bologna Children’s Book Fair) and Dato’ Ahmad Redza bin Ahmad Khairuddin (Malaysia IBBY), and in the session on accessibility organized by Karine Pansa (Grupo Girassol Brasil).
But there was also a session specifically dedicated to reading habits and the challenges faced in many countries due to the reduction in time spent reading for pleasure. I had the great pleasure of moderating the discussion with Anna Burkey (Australia Reads) and Loh Chin Ee (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore). During the two preparatory meetings for the session, I was struck by their intelligence and extensive experience in this field, and, as I expected, they were able to offer a wealth of insights into the fundamental challenges we need to overcome to improve the situation, a vision of the future of reading, the proven positive impacts of reading on various aspects of people’s lives, the most useful role of governments, and the most effective approach for the publishing industry.
For someone who has been working in the promotion of reading for over twenty years, like me, and who began this work by designing a national reading strategy, Adibah Omar’s presentation was very special. She was able to present a very complex structure and a series of public policies across several different fields in an engaging, understandable, and convincing way.
For her part, Sheikha Bodour Al Qasimi, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Education and Book Culture, gave an inspiring presentation on the role of publishers in closing the global literacy gap. She presented a thoughtful set of compelling ideas on how publishers can transform situations of limited access in homes, schools, libraries, and elsewhere. I took a lot of notes, which will be useful for future reflections, and her presentation was a good example and summary of what I want to discuss in this post: my perception that what currently holds the greatest interest for the publishing industry is nothing other than promoting actions that enhance access to reading for the entire world population—regardless of where they live or their social conditions—that this access be experienced under conditions of complete freedom, and that people’s relationship with reading be a high-quality, immersive, and ambitious experience.
This entire sequence of perspectives and opinions on the current state of reading was completed with a presentation by Markus Dohle. From the perspective of a top executive with a global outlook, he told us that we are living in the best moment in history for books and reading. His argument had a quantitative basis; beyond the quality or level of reading skills, every year there is a broader reading base in the world because there are more and more literate people. I recommend that anyone who didn’t attend the conference watch the video of his speech.
Taken together, these conversations reinforced my conviction that promoting reading is no longer a peripheral concern within international publishing but one of its defining priorities. As Chair of the IPA Literacy Subcommittee, I found it particularly encouraging to see how consistently these issues surfaced throughout the Congress, from discussions on freedom to publish and educational publishing to debates on accessibility, diversity and reading habits. I left Kuala Lumpur with pages of notes, fresh ideas, and a renewed sense of purpose. Many of the insights shared during these three days deserve further consideration, and I hope to return to them in future articles exploring what they may mean for those of us working to strengthen reading cultures around the world. Because the Congress may have come to an end, but for me the most interesting conversations are only just beginning.