Tips for Christmas

“A basket full of books, everyone chooses something”

Book corner in Sabine Weißensteiner's bookshop; she is leafing through "Colorful - Iris Apfel: What color is happiness?"(Bild: Horst Einöder/Flashpictures)

People don't read anymore? Not at all: "Reading is back in fashion," says Sabine Weißensteiner, owner of the cult bookshop Fürstelberger in Linz. In the "Krone" talk, she explains why books are an "ideal gift", especially at Christmas. And she gives book tips for adults and children.

"The youth we thought we had lost is back. Because there is so much happening around books," says Sabine Weißensteiner. She runs the cult bookshop Fürstelberger, which can be found on the Taubenmarkt in Linz.

Why is reading booming again? "It has to do with social media," says Weißensteiner. "With TikTok pages like #BookTok or podcasts about books and authors." And because Christmas also brings stress-free hours of leisure, the book is an "ideal Christmas present" anyway.

Gripping novel about AI
With more than 60,000 new publications every year, it's good when someone gives you tips. "Ursula Poznanski's books are particularly suitable for young readers," says the bookseller. "Die Burg" (Knaur, €25.50) is "one of the best novels about AI".

Questions for grandma and grandpa
Anyone who loves stories about grandparents will fall in love with "Fragen hätte ich noch. Stories from our grandparents" (Rotpunkt, €30.50). Wolfram Schneider-Lastin has asked authors from Austria, Germany and Switzerland to write down their memories. 

The best recipes
A cookbook is always fitting: "Ingrid Pernkopf, legendary Grünberg landlady from Gmunden, who sadly passed away in 2016, has left us a wealth of recipes. For decades, this has been the dream of all those who love to cook and eat well," says Weißensteiner. The new publication "Die Goldene Pernkopf" (Pichler, €40) serves up Austrian cuisine for every day, but also for special moments. A discovery for crime fiction fans: Theresa Prammer chases an exciting team of investigators across Vienna in "Falsche Masken" (Haymon, €18).

Some buy 15 books. On Christmas Eve, everyone in the family gets to choose one.

Sabine Weißensteiner über eine andere Art des Schenkens

For young reading adventures
Of course, children's literature also has plenty of new releases. The German series "Die Cobra-Bande" (EMF Verlag, from 8 years) is popular, exciting detective stories with puzzles to solve. The series "Cosmo Zauberkater" (Coppenrath, aged 9+) is funny and fascinating: a little stray cat attends a magic school, everything goes wrong until he discovers his magical powers.