Buscalibre, the largest bookstore in Latin America, presented a selection of works that will be trending this year and that shows how the literary industry continues its effort to promote reading and bring books closer to people in Colombia.
For Juan José Daza, regional director of Buscalibre for Latin America, “The publishing and booksellers ecosystem projects a 2023 with great expectations and positive behavior. The application of technology facilitates processes and practices that make it possible to bring books closer to people regardless of geographic location, reducing shipping costs and allowing a much more varied offer, among other great benefits.”
Buscalibre sold an average of 75,000 books per month in the country in 2022, with a growth of 12% compared to the previous year, and by 2023 it plans to continue its double-digit growth of recent years. From its platform it is possible to find close to five million titles, and receive them at any point in the national geography.
The following are some of the most anticipated literary novelties for this month and the rest of the year in Colombia:
1- “If they know what I am like, why do they invite me?”, by Felipe Zuleta
It is the new compendium of experiences of a member of a presidential family, which occurred outside the home. “I am very surprised that some of the cousins are so upset that public opinion knows details about the family. But since they ‘invited’ me to that party, I will recount some facts that I have remembered and of which, not only do I feel no shame, but I am dying of laughter”, says the author about this book that, more than a paper duo and ink, it can become a great ally of your mental health.
2- “Idiot Generation”, by Agustín Laje
It is the continuation of his international best seller “The cultural battle”. According to the writer, 21st century adolescent-focused ideologies are on the rise. As a result, teenagers are ruling the world. They govern the form of culture, structure the ways of politics, inspire changes in language, impose their aesthetic preferences, and dominate the post-industrial imaginary and the system of consumption.
3- “My answers for the soul”, by Paula López
“You have not come to suffer in this world, but to transmute your pain into joy, and your own darkness into light for you and for those around you”, the author confides to those who want to listen to her, and like a doctor of souls, she provides the desperate with philosophical pills, spiritual recipes, hopeful diagnoses, effective recuperative exercises, miracle-healing medicines, and magical reconstitution stimulants.
4- “Ruge”, by Daniel Habif
“Within you is a giant power that contains a scream. Although you have bound it with doubts and fears, it is still there gagged with the oppressive censorship that you have imposed on it: the same with which you have silenced your dreams”, says this book, which is to unleash that cry, long silenced, that will tear down the walls and it will bend the bars that enclose each person.
5- “Childhood and Youth”, by Fito Páez
This is how the book by the Argentine singer-songwriter begins: “As a child, did I know the smell of death? And so (logically) it ends: “Will it continue?” In the middle, four hundred pages of memoirs whose front labeling should warn: “high in emotion, very sharp in pop culture, refined, bestial, loving, explicit.”
6- “Decalcomania”, by Lily del Pilar
“Can you love what someone made you hate?” is the reflective question of this text. “In the year 1979 many things are prohibited. Being gay is still one of them. With time running out for Liu Tian and Xiao Zhen, they must face the most difficult choice of all: family or being their true selves? What would you choose?”, Del Pilar, author of the bestsellers “Still with you” and “Still with me”, returns with the outcome of “Calcomanía”: an extraordinary romantic adventure that will leave anyone breathless.
7- “The Archipelago Theory, by Alice Kellen
This book comes to say that all people are an island. “We come into this world alone and we leave exactly the same, but we need to have other islands around us to feel happy in the middle of that sea that unites as much as it separates”, says the author.
Those who read the most
According to the most recent figures from the Colombian Book Chamber, a Colombian reads an average of 2.7 books per year, and according to the organization, the total sale of physical books through digital channels was close to $49,860 million. for 2021.
“Writers, publishers and bookstores like Buscalibre continue with the effort to promote and encourage reading in Colombia. Every time it is possible to find a greater variety of titles and this is partly the product of this desire that there is in people to make books a place of inspiration, rest and learning. 2023 is projected as a promising year in literary novelties, where the diversity of genres, styles and formats seeks to meet an increasingly active demand in the population”, explains Juan José Daza.
Last year it was announced that Colombia is the fourth country that reads the most in Latin America. The female audience is the most interested in buying books, spending, on average, more than $75,000 pesos on physical books.
The truth is that, despite being the fourth country that reads the most in the region, according to these figures and data from Buscalibre, Colombians still have a long way to go to reach the reading rate of countries like Argentina or Chile, where the average is more than five books per person per year. In fact, these two countries occupy the first and second places, respectively, in the ranking of those who read the most in Latin America carried out by the physical book sales portal.