AustLit

'The COVID-19 pandemic has illuminated the significance of books and reading in people’s lives. In lockdown, or ‘iso’, as the ubiquitous experience of home isolation is now almost fondly referred to, bookrelated activities are thriving. A survey taken in the United Kingdom during May 2020 showed that during the pandemic, time spent reading had doubled on average amongst respondents, with genre fiction, particularly thriller and crime, topping the list of favoured books (Flood). Around the world, online book discussion forums are booming, through platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and the iconic medium of this time, Zoom (Hunt). Literary festivals have gone online; reading events (meet the author, book launches, public readings), usually staged in physical spaces to local audiences, are now virtual, and theoretically accessible to all, across time zones and oceans. Bookshops, forced to close or to heavily constrain their opening times, are busily sending out online sales, while libraries have introduced home delivery services where restrictions allow.' (Introduction)