Kyiv recently hosted the International Book Arsenal Festival, a project of Mystetskyi Arsenal founded in 2011, that is "an annual intellectual event in Ukraine, where the book, literary, visual, musical, and theatrical scenes develop and interact, where the important issues of human existence, as well as society and culture are raised, prompting the proactive position of the participants and visitors."
This year's visitors described the festival as a bit quieter than previous editions, which was partly attributed to the rainy weather as well as the fact that "there had been repeated warnings of an imminent Russian attack of the kind that had struck the previous week, when the invaders let loose 60 missiles and 600 drones, most of them targeted at Ukraine's capital," the Guardian reported, noting that an attack did not come until right after the festival had ended.
After four years of war, the nature of the book trade has altered in Ukraine. "I'm seeing more and more books describing the experience of those who have joined the army, reflecting a change of status from civil to military and how it has impacted on their sense of selves," said Maksym Butkevych, one of the festival's programmers and a human rights defender who volunteered for the army in 2022 and was captured, tortured, and held prisoner for two years. He had also suggested the tagline for this year's festival, which translates in English to "bear your freedom."
Butkevych observed: "Reading is a symbol of freedom--something that during most of my time in captivity I was forbidden from doing. It is the place where you have an inner world that cannot be invaded by the captors."
He also called Kyiv Book Arsenal "more than a book festival, it's a laboratory for exchanging ideas.... It's about discussing our values and what we share as a community. Everything is intertwined: the Ukrainian language, book buying, discussing ideas--these are the threads that knit our community together."
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The number of bookstores in Japan dropped to 9,993 at the end of last fiscal year, according to a survey by the Japan Publishing Organization for Information Infrastructure Development, decreasing in fiscal 2025 by 424 from the 10,417 recorded in fiscal 2024. Asia News Network reported that the number of bookstores nationwide had peaked at 24,237 in fiscal 1998 before declining, "driven in part by the spread of the internet and the growth of online retailers."
The Japanese government launched a bookstore revitalization plan in June 2025 that has been promoting operational efficiency, including the adoption of IC tags for books, and some bookstores have begun implementing these measures, ANN noted. Last year, the estimated sales value of printed publications dropped below ¥1 trillion ($6.3 million) for the first time in 50 years. ANN added that the survey may not account for all bookstores, as some independent shops are believed to have been excluded from the data.
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Somelee Booktruck, a mobile bookstore from P.S. Publishing, is on an ambitious journey to visit all 77 provinces of Thailand. Time Out Bangkok reported that "anyone familiar with the publisher's red-doored Somewhere Bookshop or the ice cream-slinging Something Blue Library already knows that P.S. Publishing has a knack for creating spaces people want to linger in. Somelee Booktruck brings that same spirit to the road, transforming cafe forecourts, markets and neighborhood corners into pop-up literary pit stops across the country." In addition to Thai-language books, the white mobile shop also carries English-language editions.
"More than a travelling bookshop, Somelee turns each stop into a temporary community of readers. Books change hands, recommendations are exchanged and strangers end up discussing their latest favourite reads over coffee," Time Out Bangkok noted.