Too upbeat?

There is a really good little book that comes with today’s Observer covering the publishing industry full of facts and figures and interesting stuff about how a book is created and then published. The only thing I have to disagree with is the upbeat introduction. It states that there are more books published than ever before. But then states that with literacy increasing and second hand bookshops flourishing then now is a great time for literature.

Hold on. According to various sources literacy is declining in some quarters. Bookshops are finding it harder to compete with online rivals and the large supermarkets and the whole debate about ebooks has clouded the actual problem with getting people to engage with reading.

Mind you put all of that in the introduction and I guess people wouldn’t read on…