Print isn’t dead—thanks to adult coloring books and YouTube stars. | The New Republic

Print isn’t dead—thanks to adult coloring books and YouTube stars.

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This week brought some very good news from the publishing industry: sales of print books are up from last year—and way, way up from the dismal years of 2012 and 2013. The e-book is on the decline, independent bookstores are on the rise, and that place you loved to loiter in the 90s, Barnes & Noble, may soon complete it’s transformation into a lifestyle brand, whatever that means. 

Now allow this cheerful graph to transform before your very eyes into a thing of horror: 

Publishers told the Associated Press this week that the rise of coloring books and books authored by YouTube stars this year seems to have contributed to Americans’ re-investment in physical books

So on we push towards 2016, as the scourge of teens quietly coloring in a corner shows no sign of letting up.