Editorial: El País

• The Book Day is celebrated but the sector is fragile and needs institutional support due to technological evolution, inflation and increase in paper prices.
• Creating and maintaining readers is challenging in a world where attention is scarce, although reading has many benefits for concentration, imagination, and complex thought development.
• Numerous titles are published (82 daily, 30000 annually) in Spain, which makes it difficult for independent bookstores to manage.
• The independent bookstore system, threatened by online retail giants like Amazon, coexists with large companies and small labels which face precariousness in a country with a high percentage of population that doesn't read.
• Global successes like that of Irene Vallejo and the survival of independent publishers denote optimism.

Conclusion: The book sector requires daily, active support to survive in a world of rapid technological change and online competition, despite occasional successes.

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