ALL types of books are being sold at a sale held in Ludlow Library until the end of January.

Fiction, none fiction, children’s and large print books are just some of the selection for sale.

Book sales at libraries like Ludlow occur throughout the year in order to make way for new titles. There are also sales in libraries in other market towns in the area as well as at venues like Ludlow Assembly Rooms and Bishops Castle Town Hall.

Some of the books will no doubt find their way into Christmas stockings whilst others will give pleasure over the holiday period. This is the busiest time of year for the sale of books that remain amongst the most popular gifts.

Fears that real books would be largely replaced by online reading are proving to be unfounded.

Research has shown that any obituaries for the printed book have been premature.

According to the Publishers Association the sale of real books in 2016 was the highest since 2012 and increased by eight per cent to be worth £3 billion.

Altogether the sales of printed books and journals was worth £4.8 billion. However, there was a fall of three per cent in the sale of e-books.

In the same period the sale of children’s books was worth £365 million, an increase of 16 per cent whilst non-fiction sales at £884 million were up nine per cent.

There was also good news for tradition book shops sales through shops went up by seven per cent but sales of e-books slumped by four per cent.

It was the second consecutive year that the sale of e-books had fallen after a decade in which they had been on the rise.

Many local authors have taken advantage of the increasing popularity and ease of self publishing that makes it simple for people to go in print although it can be very difficult to get professional publishers to take a chance of putting unknown writers in print because of the commercial risks involved in the investment needed.