Germans like to give books as Christmas gifts. But that's not the only reason the number of bookstores in Berlin is actually growing, despite the thre

Why bookstores are thriving in socially conscious Berlin

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2021-10-27 01:30:04

Germans like to give books as Christmas gifts. But that's not the only reason the number of bookstores in Berlin is actually growing, despite the threat of ebooks and online discounters.

In other cities I visit, subway commuters seem to universally stare at their phones these days. Is this due to some Luddite disdain for technology in the German capital? Or does it align with the fact that, after money, books are the most popular Christmas gift in Germany? Some 49 percent of Germans are putting books under the tree this year, while 54 percent are giving money, according to retail statistic service handelsdaten.de

Is Berlin simply a last holdout for "Dichter und Denker" - poets and thinkers who hold the printed book sacrosanct, and who would not deign to forfeit valuable reading time by consuming fake Facebook news on their smartphone?

"If Amazon is not stopped, we are facing the end of literary culture in America," prophesized Andrew Wylie, an influential literary agent in New York. To what extent is literary culture flourishing in the US? And what are Americans reading? What follows are impressions of Americans' relationship with books, from the Big Apple to the deep South.

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