WHAT DO WE READ?

“About seventy percent of library visitors are students. They mainly read curriculum books,” Vergine Arakelyan, deputy director of Yerevan Avetik Isahakyan Library, told Panorama.am. In her words, annually 197,000 books are read, out of which mid school aged children take 36,000. “Four hundred to six hundred books are donated to the library each year. Ninety percent are Armenian authors. Authors and books included in curricula have the most demand,” the deputy director said.

Panorama.am inquired from Yerevan books shops about the market demand for books. The World of Books said the demand for colorful children’s books have gone up. Many have been asking for Orhan Pamuk’s Nobel Prize book. Students buy professional and modern foreign literature. The classics are of interest for mid-aged customers. Professional and mature aged people are interested in history books. Paolo Coelo and Oksana Robski are the two modern writers that enjoy the greatest interest among customers. Den Braun and his Code Da Vinci have the highest demand. Modern Armenian writers have no demand today, the bookshop assistants say.