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21 August 2025

21 August: Prix du livre de la Ville de Lausanne finalists | Reading in ... the US | Ending VAT tax on books in Denmark

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       Prix du livre de la Ville de Lausanne finalists

       The Swiss Book Prize is limited to German-language titles; they'll be announcing the finalists on 11 September -- but the prize for French-language Swiss books, the Prix du livre de la Ville de Lausanne got the jump on them with their finalists-announcemet; see the official press release (warning ! dreaded pdf format !) .
       This one is interesting also because the winner will be decided by public vote, with voting open through 31 December.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       Reading in ... the US

       A new study, by Jessica K. Bone, Feifei Bu, Jill K. Sonke, and Daisy Fancourt, reports on the The decline in reading for pleasure over 20 years of the American Time Use Survey which depressingly: "found marked declines in the proportion of individuals reading for pleasure daily in the US, with decreases of 3% per year" bertween 2003 and 2023.
       By 2023: "only 16% of participants read for pleasure during the diary day". And while they found: "no changes in reading with children over time" these rates were: "surprisingly low, with only 2% of participants reading with children on the average day". Also troubling: "By 2023, Black participants had a 49% lower prevalence of daily reading than White participants".

       Lots of media coverage of this already; see, e.g. articles in The Guardian, The Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times.

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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       Ending VAT tax on books in Denmark

       The Danish government plans to abolish the (25 per cent) value added tax (VAT -- which is basically: sales tax) on books; see, for example, the articles at the BBC and The Guardian.
       Apparently, the 25% rate is: "is the highest in the world" on books; a 25% VAT is the norm in the Scandinavian countries (see e.g.) but the others have a lower rate for books -- with Norway already not collecting any VAT on books.
       Apparently some 8,300,000 books were sold in Denmark in 2023; it'll be interesting to see if the numbers go up when the cost to purchasers goes down. (Of course, publishers could also raise their prices .....)

(Posted by: M.A.Orthofer)    - permanent link -

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