The event first took place nearly a century ago, in 1925. Following tradition, the book week, intended to encourage Hebrew-book reading, will feature book fairs around the country, sales at bookstores, events at libraries and readings by well-known authors.
Among this year’s events will be days of activities at the First Station Compound in Jerusalem, many of which are geared at children, including performances of plays based on fairy tales and other beloved children’s works, arts and crafts projects and music inspired by children’s literature. Most libraries are also featuring readings of children’s books, as well as lectures on literature and non-fiction works for adults.
In Tel Aviv, the Sarona Park and market will be the focus of a book fair which will also feature dozens of events with every kind of reader in mind, especially children.
There has been lively debate among book lovers as to whether the pandemic would encourage people to read more, since most people were housebound for large portions of the past year. However, apparently the coronavirus crisis has had a detrimental effect on book publishing, according to research released Tuesday by the National Library of Israel.
Two thousand fewer books came out in 2020 (6,487 books) compared to 2019 (8,225 books), marking a dramatic decrease. Interestingly, however, poetry books outnumbered original books of prose for the first time and the relative share of prose and poetry books increased significantly and comprised 28% of all books published in 2020 compared to 22% in 2019. The non-fiction genre was the most hard-hit publishing genre affected by the pandemic and the field of Jewish studies in particular was the most severely impacted, showing a drop of 33% compared to 2019.
Around 70 children’s books and books of prose and poetry dealing with COVID-19 were published in 2020.
Not surprisingly, there was a 73% increase in the sales of electronic books published in Israel. The library does not gather statistics on the numbers of ebooks ordered from abroad, but some bookstore owners have complained privately that many of their customers turned to ebooks during the lockdowns, rather than using the delivery option that some bookstores were able to offer.
“I hope that people will go back to reading actual books now that the pandemic is over,” said a Tel Aviv bookseller, who added that so far, business had been good since the lifting of retail COVID regulations, particularly of Hebrew-language books, many fewer of which are available as ebooks.
Tel Aviv libraries released their own data on the reading habits in Tel Aviv and noted a similar increase in ebook reading. Libraries were able to offer takeaway services during the pandemic and Tel Aviv libraries reported that over 6,000 new members joined since the crisis began.