UNESCO launches Athens as World Book Capital

UNESCO has launched Athens as World Book Capital during a formal ceremony on Monday held at the Acropolis Museum.

The ceremony was attended by the President of the Hellenic Republic Mr Prokopis Pavlopoulos and Athens Mayor Giorgos Kaminis.

"We have the fortune to be living in a city whose heritage is considered to be the cradle of western civilisation. A city with enormous history but with also lots of modern stories that take place around us every day," said Kaminis.

More than 250 book inspired festivities are planned to take place in Athens during its time as World Book Capital, an initiative of UNESCO, the United Nations educational, scientific and cultural organisation.

Greece has been the guest of honour at many International Book Fairs including Frankfurt 2001, Geneva 2003, Bologna / Torino 2004, Madrid 2005, Beijing 2008, Belgrade 2009, Riyadh and Moscow 2016 .

According to a 2016 report by Socrates Kabouropoulos from the Book Policy Working Group (BPWG) Minister’s Office, Ministry of Culture just under 50% of the population are book readers with 42.3% over 15 years of age reading at least on book per year, 34,2% read 1 to 9 books/year,  8,1% read over 10 books/year (appr. 780.000), of which:  1,7% read over 25 books/year (appr. 150.000) [Average: 5,9 books/year, Median: 3 books/year]

From the total book title production about 32.1% are translated works into Greek with English language works dominating the market at 50%  followed by French (11-12%), German (4%), Spanish (4%), Italian (3%), Russian (1%), and 33 other languages (all Scandinavian & Balkan languages, Portuguese, Arabic, Polish, Hungarian, Czech, Dutch, Catalan, Japanese, Chinese, etc.) 

The most popular popular foreign authors in translation include the following internationally acclaimed authors: Umberto Eco, Salman Rushdie, Jose Saramago, Haruki Murakami, Margaret Atwood, Philip Roth, Alice Munro, J.M. Coetzee, Paul Auster,  Don DeLillo, Jonathan Coe, Günther Grass, Orhan Pamuk, Roberto Bolaño, Mario Vargas Llosa, Richard Ford, Richard Flanagan, Patrick Modiano, et.al. 

Recently acquainted with Greek readers  are Jaume Cabré, Karl Ove Knausgård, Elena Ferrante, Antony Doerr, Juan Gabriel Vásquez, Georges Saunders, Anthony Marra, Joël Dicker, Andrés Neuman, etc.