The FINANCIAL — Jinsebis Taoba by Davit Turashvili and One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez were named the bestsellers by all companies asked. Lali Moroshkina’s Me, President and the World Champion was also one of the bestsellers of Parnasi. 240,000 books in total were sold in Georgia by the leading bookshops Biblusi, Literaturuli-Book Land, Ekslibrisi (Santa Esperanza) and Parnasi.
The representatives of bookshops told The FINANCIAL that the most demanded are children’s books and works of art literature.
Children’s books make up 36% of total sales, says Nino Melashvili, the purchasing manager of Biblusi. “About 35-40% of sales come from these books, parents have less to spend on a child’s book, the prices at Ekslibrisi start from 5-40 GEL and the demand for each book is steady, regardless of the price,” says Madona Eliashvili, Manager of Ekslibrisi.
The 5 most popular books at Literaturuli are: Aka Morchiladze – Mamluki (Mameluk) and Dzveli gulebisa da Khmlisa (the old Hearts and Swords), Dato Turashvili – Jinsebis taoba (Generation of Jeans), Lasha Bugadze – Karikaturisti, Lali Moroshkina – Me, the President and the World Champion.
The 5 most popular books at Parnasi: out-of-print books (sold 508 units), Dato Turashvili – Jinsebis Taoba (Generation of Jeans), Antuan De Sent Exupery – Little Prince, Emily Bronte – Wuthering Heights, Lali Moroshkina – Me, the President and the World Champion.
The 5 most popular books at Biblusi: the World atlas, Encyclopedia for children, Big Georgians, Big painters, Bible (audio version).
The 5 most popular books by Ekslibrisi: Dato Turashvili – Jinsebis Taoba (Generation of Jeans), All Time best 20 Georgian Tales, Piratologia, Greek-Romanian myths, Children’s encyclopedia.
“The popularity of bestsellers is most of all governed by modern tendencies, the books of modern Georgian writers are read quite often as the books have close relevance to present reality and the daily lives are described quite well,” says Khatuna Metreveli, Manager of Literaturuli.
Bookshops name the most popular and widely sold Georgian writers: Chabua Amirejibi, Guram Dochanashvili, Aka Morchiladze, Dato Turashvili, Galaktioni, Otar Chiladze, Anna Kalandadze and Nodar Dumbadze.
“The popularity of different books is probably governed by advertising, since we made a presentation about the book by Dochanashvili, interest in the book rose dramatically and more books were consequently sold,” says Melashvili.
“Charkviani’s poetry collection turned out to be quite popular amongst Georgian readers, at present we offer Charkviani’s Old Toy, two weeks have passed since its realization and it has sold quite quickly during that time,” says Metreveli.
“The popularity of different types of books is determined by different factors, for children’s books more attention is paid to the design and content, while when reading prose more attention is paid to others’ recommendations” says Eliashvili.
Bookshops named the most popular foreign writers and their works, as: Gabriel Garcia Marquez – One Hundred Years of Solitude, the mostly read foreign book in Georgia, followed by Paulo Coelho, Miguel De Unamuno, Antuan De Sent Exupery and Stephanie Meyer.
Parnasi had in stock the Twilight Saga by Stephanie Meyer, the English version, 30 units (all 4 books) and the Russia version, 50 units (4 books). The cost of the complete set was 150 GEL which sold out very quickly.
“In our chain the best selling foreign book is Twilight, within one month we realized more than 20 books, we have the English version and the price is 23 GEL per book,” says Eliashvili.
As for Dan Brown – the Lost Symbol (79 GEL), Parnasi and Ekslibrisi have already realized sales of the books.
Bookshops say that the demand for books and the habit of reading has changed.
“Computers and the internet have had quite a huge influence on people’s reading habits, we give our clients the chance to read books at our café, however demand and habit of reading in the country is quite low,” says Metreveli.
Eliashvili says that most of their books are sold to people between the ages of 25-30.
Biblusi is actively involved in conducting research among Georgians to discover the 50 books that one should read whilst alive. The research is being done on Facebook, one of the most popular social networks in Georgia. The group already has 3,000 members who are actively involved in discussing the list of the top 50 books.
The average price of a book is 10-15 GEL. The price of a book starts from 0.5 GEL and the highest price varies according to the book and bookstore. For 0.5 GEL at Parnasi one can buy out-of-print books. The most expensive book at Parnasi is Modern Architecture in English costing 650 GEL.
Literaturuli offers albums of Leonardo Da Vinci and Rafael at 500 GEL each. At Biblusi the highest price is for 7 books of Megruli Vocabulary costing 300 GEL. Ekslibrisi has probably the most expensive book costing 2,480 GEL, the 8 book complete set is about Design and Architecture of the 20th Century.
Electronic Books are not yet very popular in Georgia.
Parnasi and Biblusi say that they have e-book versions but they are rarely in demand and consequently rarely bought. Parnasi offers a wide variety of e-books, both Georgian and Foreign Literature. We have Bolo Zari (the last ring) by Lasha Bugadze, Haki Adzba by Leo Kiacheli, and Vefkhistkaosani (Knight in the Tiger’s Skin) by Shota Rustaveli, the prices for these start from 6.5 GEL and go up to 35 GEL, however demand for them is quite low,” says Gogebashvili (Parnasi). Biblusi offers CDs of Nikoloz Baratashvili, Vaza-Pshavela and Lado Asatiani.
Biblusi has 14 chains throughout Georgia including in the following cities: Tbilisi, Batumi, Kutaisi, Rustavi, Senaki, Dusheti, Khashuri, Samtredia, Poti and Zugdidi. Literaturuli, Parnasi and Ekslibrisi are based only in Tbilisi. Literaturuli has 4 bookshops, Parnasi – 3, and Ekslibrisi – 2.
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