Books open youth up to whole new galaxy

Within the first month of 2025, the trend of reading pop science books, particularly ones with fascinating text and illustrations attractive to children, has risen among young readers thanks to policy support from various authorities.

On Jan 1, the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Science and Technology, along with cooperating departments, announced its annual New Discovery Pop-Science Booklist of 21 types of books, including one that explains sound to readers and one about flying birds, both of which had good sales records on domestic bookselling websites.

The Beijing Book Fair was held from Jan 9 to 11 at the China International Exhibition Center (Chaoyang Hall), where pop science books appeared as a genre that both readers and publishers marveled at. Their popularity was evident with over 2,900 display booths seeing their opening hours hosting pop-science writers' lectures where they shared knowledge that was well-received among audiences.

"We get double the information by attending the lectures," said 38-year-old Deng Hong, who attended three pop-science book-sharing lectures with her daughter on Jan 9.

"We both get to know what a new book is about and take in science knowledge," she added.