Barcelona's book sales increase during Sant Jordi

Barcelona's book sales increased on Thursday when compared with a year earlier due to the celebration of Saint Jordi or Saint George, according to data published on Friday by economics newspaper Expansion.

According to the newspaper, which cited sources from the Catalan publishing industry (Gremi de Llibreters), on Thursday at midday the figure of purchases was already higher than that of a year earlier.

The organization had predicted 1.5 million of purchases and on Thursday at mid-day they only had registered drops in paperbacks sales.

April 23 is the International Book Day and Sant Jordi, the patron saint of Catalonia where this day is associated with books and roses due to the legend of the Saint, who killed a dragon and gave the princess a rose.

Owing to the economic crisis Spain faced in years past, book sales had significantly decreased over the last years and many book shops were forced to close. Sant Jordi is a special day for the industry as they expect to sell between 5 percent and 8 percent of the year's total sales on that day.

Meanwhile, Mercabarna (wholesale market of Barcelona) had predicted a week ago to sell around 6 million of roses, hoping to reach 7 million.

However, some florists told Xinhua on Thursday that they did not expect to increase sales in comparison with 2014, when 6 million of purchases were calculated.

The red rose has always been the star product of the day, followed by blue roses. Apart from those, there were roses with petals of different colors and glitter.

The best-selling books were La Templanza, by Maria Duenas in Spanish and Algu com tu, by Xavier Bosch in Catalan.

Apart from books and roses, stalls in the streets sold countless accessories related to the main figures of the festival (books and roses), solidarity organizations promoted their activities and raise funds as well as students, who also took the opportunity to raise money for schools or university trips. Enditem