Absence of bookshops would leave a big void on our high streets: Ismail Mulla
Young people no longer read books, or so we’re led to believe by cynics who have succumbed to declinism. Some go even further and say that books will be extinct, replaced by short bursts of digital media that inform (or misinform) us.
It is true that fewer and fewer children are reading physical books. Early years teachers often talk about children trying to ‘swipe’ the pages of a physical book put in their hands rather than turning them as many of us did back in the day.
I’m part of that awkward generation that straddles complete digital connectivity and a more simpler world where only a few people had access to a chunky desktop computer, let alone an internet connection.
I still remember the wonderment of using my dad’s company laptop for the first time and waiting for the dial-up connection to load. The first thing that I ever printed off the internet was a history of ancient Egypt. History was my favourite subject at school and we just happened to be learning about it.
The excitement of the information on screen being transformed into grainy ink in front of your eyes was unrivalled at the time.
Since then the march of technology has continued unabated. Sometimes it has made life easier, sometimes not so much. We’ve learnt to accept it.
As I grew older, the more I realised technology was not the panacea. It makes comprehension much harder. Privacy is no longer the default but a privilege at the mercy of powerful tech bosses. Rather than bringing people together, technology is used to stoke division and fuel isolation.
However, it would be premature to start typing the epitaph for printed books. The number of independent bookshops in the UK and Ireland is now at its highest level since 2012, with 1,086 stores in 2025 - up from a record low of 867 in 2016, according to the Booksellers Association.
A recent report found that TikTok helped generate £175m in consumer spending on books last year.
Of course this is to be welcomed but it would be dangerous to assume that all is well. Bookshops are still struggling. While TikTok may well have got a trend for books going, trends can be transient. And there are far more people consuming brain rot online than there are those engaging with wholesome content that might drive users to books.
Look at how Amazon started off selling books before becoming the world’s online shop for everything and anything. I remember getting sucked in over a decade ago, the lure of discounted books too great to ignore. Ignorant to the damage it was doing to bookshops.
It took away one of the great pleasures of life - whiling away hours just browsing all sorts of books on the shelf. Occasionally you’d even bump into somebody interesting and start a conversation about what you were both reading. The sort of spontaneous interaction that you don’t get online.
No one is excluded, you just need a love of books. In order to take one away with you, of course you need the means to pay for it.
It is important that these important public spheres are protected. Not only because they connect people or because they are places of enlightenment but also because they speak to the sort of society we all want to live in. One where reading is valued. Where ideas are encouraged and even challenged.
I bet if the angry men and women who have been taking to the streets in recent years had not stopped reading after finishing Of Mice and Men at the behest of their English teacher at GCSE level, they would be less susceptible to nonsensical posts authored by provocateurs online.
Earlier this year, the Prime Minister announced a business rates relief for pubs, clubs and live music venues. Leading authors have joined a chorus of voices for the same relief to be extended to bookshops, rightly arguing that they play a significant, positive role in their communities.
The Government has made positive noises about wanting to encourage people to read. The Department for Education even launched the National Year of Reading campaign.
However, that risks being undermined if bookshops start going to the wall. That is why the Government must do all it can to help independent bookshops flourish. The failure to protect public libraries will forever be a stain. But a child’s, or even a grown adult’s, journey into the world of books can sometimes come from that one purchase.
Those of us who love reading all have that one well-thumbed through book that we cherish and its absence would be felt keenly. The absence of bookshops on our high streets would leave an even bigger void for society as a whole.