Publishers interpret these figures as a sign of opportunity. Jose Calafell, general director of Grupo Planeta in Mexico y Latin Americaexplains it without nuances: “Of course young people read. And they read more than before, what happens is that they read differently.”.
The expert adds that Youth is one of the fastest growing markets and that the participation of this segment reaches up to 30 percent of total consumption.
It also details that “the king genre right now is fantasy‘, literature with dragons, magic and other stories, which also records a structural change in Mexico.
“This fantasy is mostly a genre that comes from the United States, from England, but lately there are Latin American authors who write fantasy in Spanish“, highlights Calafell, who exemplifies the impact that this type of literature has among young people based on the case of Karine Bernala Colombian author who began to write and make himself known on the platform Wattpad.
“In his presentation at the International Book Fair he had 1,200 people at his presentation with his book. Sales are in the tens of thousands in all the countries of Latin America“.
For him, this shows that “those barriers are being torn down. It is no longer a taboo to think that only in the United States or England you can do fantasy“He states that the same thing happens with the Science fiction and remember that “There are already Latin American dystopias that sell very well throughout Latin America“.
Calafell explains that the young reader has other logics, which consume books in different formatsin printedbut also in different platforms.
From literary practice, the Mexican science fiction author, Andrea Chapelashares clear signs about the reading movement.
“I have attended about 30 this year
book clubs and in reality there are many young people, I do have the feeling that they are reading.
“In addition, there is a young community that is writing science fiction, it is very difficult to write science fiction without having read it before, but something is happening with this genre in Mexico,” defines Chapela, author of Todos los Fines del Mundo, who adds that “it is the best genre to narrate the present and young people find there questions and answers about the way we exist right now.“.
The 35-year-old author also sees a change in reading modes. Young people jump between formats: physical, digital, audiobook. She uses them all herself.
And you understand why: in big cities, read on cell phone in transportation o listen to a book while moving in traffic It is a way of not letting go of reading even if there is no time.
“I myself read a lot on Kindle, but also audiobooks. I consume books in all formats, having the book on your cell phone allows you to read on transport in cities like Guadalajara or Mexico City without carrying so many books and I think that many young people are also doing that“, says Chapela.
For the Spanish writer, recent winner of the Princess of Asturias Award 2025, Eduardo Mendoza there is a way to resistance in reading a book. Remember that each technological advance has been seen as a threat to print.
“When the first computers appeared it was said ‘this is over, it’s the end of the world’, but nothing happened, the same with the ebook and here we are because we like to be told stories and those stories will continue and it seems to me that young people will turn things around like we did.“, completes the winner of the Cervantes Prize.
The writer Monica Lavin addresses the relationship with the book as an object.
“Very young people sometimes read books linked to media successes, but the important thing is to make a relationship with the book as a world of words that can be attractive to you, we live in a world of immediacy, of the ephemeral, not of what lasts, nor of the memorable,” he qualifies and adds “we need good spreaders of the readings that can be fundamental for a young person“.