Facing a 'reading crisis', Denmark wants to make books cheaper

Officials in Denmark, as in many other places, are worried about whether people are still turning to a good book in a world of screens and scrolling.

- ISABELLA KWAI

They are hoping that a new proposal intended to make books cheaper will help. Books will soon be exempt from the 25% value-added tax, or VAT, that Denmark applies to most goods and services, the government said this week.

“We would like people to read more,” Jakob Engel-Schmidt, Denmark's culture minister, said in a phone interview on Thursday.

The proposed exemption, he said, was intended to combat what he called a growing “reading crisis” in the country, particularly among younger people. “Making books more accessible, lowering the prices in the bookstore, will definitely do something about that.”

Concerns over a decline in reading are not limited to Denmark. The share of Americans who read for fun has declined sharply in the past two decades, according to one recent study. Researchers have theorised that the increased use of phones and social media, along with economic pressures, could be driving the trend.

In Denmark, books are among the goods subject to a value-added tax of 25%, among the highest in Europe. Other Nordic countries, including Finland, Sweden and Norway, have lowered or entirely lifted the consumption tax for books.