Bloomberg Opinion Profile picture
Jun 13, 2021 11 tweets 6 min read Read on X
Theaters went dark in London’s West End last year, galleries closed and concert halls stood silent.

📚But there was one creative industry that flourished during lockdown: the reading and publishing of books
bloom.bg/3vlGUa4
Publishers, parents and educators are now hoping the reading habit will stick around post-Covid.

Here's why it just might:
📖@HarperCollins had a “historic” final quarter of 2020
📖Then it posted a 45% jump in profits in the quarter ending in March 2021 bloom.bg/3vlGUa4
HarperCollins CEO Charlie Redmayne points to profitable backlist sales from the likes of:

📚J. R. R. Tolkien
📚George R. R. Martin
📚Agatha Christie bloom.bg/3vlGUa4
Rising sales of teen fiction have cheered those worried that a long absence from the classroom might blunt children’s appetite for reading.

Harry Potter still works his magic, for example. Revenue from J.K. Rowling’s books rose by 7% over the last year bloom.bg/3vlGUa4
Reflecting the serious concerns of Black Lives Matter, titles such as “Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race” by Reni Eddo-Lodge has been highly popular bloom.bg/3vlGUa4
Many adults who initially sought escapism in TV streaming found that its formatted pleasures soon palled.

After a few months of lockdown, we rediscovered the joys of reading bloom.bg/3vlGUa4
Television watching and serious reading aren’t necessarily incompatible pursuits though.

Bridgerton, a Regency-era bodice-ripper with a BLM slant, prompted many to revisit their dog-eared copies of Jane Austen’s contemporaneous novels of polite society
bloom.bg/3vlGUa4
Digital books have been selling well — but they have not dominated the market as once predicted.

In the U.K., sales of e-books peaked in 2014 and then started to decline — only to reverse during the first lockdown in 2020 bloom.bg/3vlGUa4
Although publishers are prospering, Amazon is the real winner from Covid-19.

The one-click purchase giant delivered books to millions of new customers’ doors bloom.bg/3vlGUa4
☁️Every silver lining has a cloud.

New writers have found it hard to attract attention.

Many titles set to be released in 2020 were shelved by publishers until the indie bookshops that know best how to promote them could reopen bloom.bg/3vlGUa4
We have yet to see the pandemic inspire any new literary classics.

“It is remarkable to see how, in a very short time, a series of clichés coalesced," said author @MWLaPointe.

So what writer will do justice to this strange, sad period of our history? bloom.bg/3vlGUa4

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More from @opinion

Apr 2
Could Trump’s tariffs raise $700 billion a year?

We did the math 🧵 Image
$700 billion is about nine times current US customs revenue, and 2.4% of the most recent estimate of US GDP.

Tariff revenue hasn’t surpassed 2% of GDP since the early 1870s, and hasn’t surpassed it on a sustained basis since the 1820s and 1830s Image
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Look at the data 🧵
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But from X’s data, you can see that most misleading posts go unaddressed: Image
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Mar 17, 2023
📉 VCs causing the downfall of SVB
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🚐 RVs predicting the future

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Mar 15, 2023
Credit Suisse is in crisis.

What went wrong? So, so much.

🧵 Let’s take a look
We *just* learned that #SVB’s downfall was announcing it was raising equity without having buyers lined up, says @matt_levine.

So why would Credit Suisse’s biggest shareholder announce they would “absolutely not” put more money into the embattled bank? trib.al/aS9oy3I Image
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If health is wealth, America is dirt-poor.

The health-care crisis in the US isn’t just a tragedy for individuals. It makes it harder for the country to be productive and secure.

🧵 Let’s look at the data
The most vivid sign of the health crisis is falling life expectancy, says @adwooldridge bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…
There’s perhaps no greater metaphor for this crisis than the unhealthy discourse around Ozempic, writes @JKarl26.

A culture built on dieting is not a proper remedy for what ails us bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…
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📊 3 charts you need to see 📊

💰 Elon Musk is back on top
🇨🇳 Don’t panic over China’s “farm invasion”
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Subscribe to Bloomberg Opinion Today for more trib.al/BNqIxPf
💰 Elon Musk is the world’s richest person again.

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