Matteo Codignola on the Crisis of Books and Reading in Italy

In an interview with Artribune, writer and former Adelphi editor Matteo Codignola (born 1960 in Genoa) discusses the paradox of declining readership amid rising book production in Italy, citing Istat data. He argues that reading has always been a minority activity and that the real crisis is the decreasing number of good or important books being written. On AI-generated literature, he notes that while AI can produce standard books comparable to much current fiction, distinguishing human from AI text is becoming harder, similar to photography. Codignola predicts books will become even more marginal, remaining the passion of small groups of fanatics or collectors, and warns that if these groups shrink too much, publishing may become materially impossible. He offers a glimmer of hope: if social media usage declines among young people, some might rediscover reading as a more satisfying form of entertainment.