Books Should Circulate More

The carnival is over, and it’s time to bring this column back. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be beach and mate in this first piece of 2026.

It was a Sunday in February — with less sun than we would have liked — at Flamengo Beach in Rio. Even so, there were beach umbrellas open, people walking along the promenade, and vendors selling mate. The best part was that, in the middle of all that, there were people reading on the beach, exchanging books with one another, authors chatting with readers, and even a samba circle.That’s what our first “Leituraço na Praia” looked like.

Over the course of the afternoon, more than 500 books changed hands. The idea was simple: everyone would bring a book they had already read and exchange it for one they hadn’t. Our goal was to get stories circulating and finding new readers. And I kept thinking that, in a way, what was happening there was a small cultural experiment.

Even today, there is still a strong association between books and certain specific places: the library, the quiet bedroom, the comfortable armchair. As if reading required the “right” environment to happen — almost like a ritual that demands the proper conditions.

Interestingly, other forms of entertainment broke through that barrier long ago. Music is at the gym, on the subway, and during street runs. Series and videos accompany people on public transportation. Games show up anywhere someone has a few free minutes. Entertainment has spread into everyday life.

Books, despite all their possibilities and their portability, still occupy fewer of those spaces than they could.

That’s exactly why bringing books to the beach made so much sense. When you place a book next to beach umbrellas and chairs, you send a simple message: reading can also be part of everyday life, without ceremony. There’s no need to wait for the perfect moment, the perfect silence, or the perfect environment. A book can be right there, alongside everything else that already makes up our routine.

Another great aspect of the Leituraço was the book exchange. Everyone has a book at home that they’ve already read and that’s just sitting on the shelf. At the same time, everyone is curious about new stories. The exchange connects these two things.

Exchanging books is a fascinating form of cultural circular economy. A used book is not an old book. It’s a book ready to continue its journey. Each new reading adds another layer of history to the object itself. And often, the book that reaches you isn’t the bestseller of the moment, but an unexpected discovery.

Perhaps there is also an important opportunity here for the publishing industry itself.

If we want books to be everywhere, they need to leave the logic of the static storefront and become an experience that can happen anywhere.

Books need to appear in more contexts: cultural events, parks, beaches, bars, book clubs, festivals, gatherings between people. When books occupy new spaces, they stop being just a product available for purchase and start becoming part of social life.

A book isn’t just something that is sold.A book is something that circulates.

This doesn’t mean abandoning bookstores, libraries, or digital platforms. It means expanding the territory of reading. Because every time a book appears somewhere it normally wouldn’t, something interesting happens: someone discovers that reading can be simpler, closer, and more natural than they imagined.

In the end, promoting reading may also be a question of cultural geography. Where are the books?

And perhaps even more importantly: what other places could they occupy?