Books have always occupied a special status among my possessions, an exemption from the guilt of consumption that strikes when I purchase a lipstick but never a paperback. Buying books feels wholesome, even virtuous. I like to tell myself that I'm doing my part to keep the publishing industry alive, as if my steady acquisitions are chest compressions for an ailing patient.
The pile beside my bed never shrinks; at the bottom of the stack are books I've been planning to crack open for months. My shelves remain full of lingering aspirations.
BookNet Canada found that almost a third of surveyed Canadians read daily for leisure in 2022. Last year, we collectively bought nearly 49 million books, with physical volumes remaining much more popular than ebooks or audiobooks.
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