THE annual Shanghai Book Fair has once again debunked the doomsayers who predicted the digital age would be the death of words written on pages.

The fair, which ends tomorrow, is now in its 13th year and still going strong. Digital gadgetry, no matter how popular, just hasn’t destroyed the pleasure of picking up a book and reading it.

“It was once said that the Shanghai Book Fair served as an ‘alarm clock,’ alerting everyone that it’s time to enjoy reading again,” said Xu Jiong, director of Shanghai Press and Publication Bureau, just before the fair started last Wednesday at the Shanghai Exhibition Center. “But over the years, it is no longer the only ‘alarm’ we have.”

Xu noted that Shanghai now hosts dozens of book events every weekend, not to mention the popularity of reading clubs, cultural seminars and book signings. Bookstores, where book lovers can congregate to read or meet, are coming back into vogue after a slow demise.

Sales of hardback adult books last year rose 15 percent from a year earlier, while paperbacks gained 9 percent, according to the Association of American Publishers. Electronic books, once hailed as the death knell for traditional texts, have been declining since their peak in 2013, falling 11 percent last year.

Indeed, a report by the Shanghai Press and Publication Bureau found that about 60 percent of readers in China still prefer printed books, while only 16.5 percent favor digital editions.

The Shanghai Book Fair, which brings together authors from around the world, has long been a harbinger of the latest trends in China’s book market, highlighting the next best-sellers, the favorite writers, the most popular genres and the new technologies that may change our reading habits in the future.

This year, the trends include a comeback in bookstores, higher-quality printed books, an expanding range of audio books, and an upsurge in children’s literature. Suspense and science fiction novels have become all the go with readers.

Book lovers have been especially gratified to see the resurrection of traditional bookstores. Many had gone out of business because of skyrocketing rents and competition from cheaper online retailers.

Yu Wei, a former bookshop owner and wholesaler in his mid-50s, retired when the second-hand book market near the city’s Confucius Temple was closed down in 2013. Business hadn’t been good, he admitted, and staying open had become a labor of love.

Now, Yu is ready to make a comeback.

“I have been considering opening a new bookshop because the business seems to be picking up again,” Yu tells Shanghai Daily. “Some of my old friends who left the industry are being lured back nowadays.”

Luo Zhenyu, a social media celebrity who streamlines videos sharing books he has read, said earlier in the year that his team had made 100 million yuan (US$15 million) by selling books through its online shop.

Unlike other online bookshops, they offer no discounts and specialize exclusively in books, especially books in social sciences — from history to economics. The online shop sells books by both domestic and foreign authors.

So what’s changing the attitude of readers?

“I went digital for a few years, but it was difficult to read books on mobile devices because I was constantly distracted by games or videos,” explains 30-year-old book lover Alex Zhang. “Now, I only read social media posts online, and go for printed texts when I want to do some serious reading.”

There is also a certain cachet about bookstores that the digital age can’t reproduce.

“I have been going back to bookstores in the past few years,” says Felix Yang, a financial analyst in his late 20s. “And I always go to the book fair. I remember all the times as children when we crouched in the corner of bookshops reading.”

Last year, according to the Association of American Publishers, the number of bricks-and-mortar bookstores rose almost 2 percent, continuing an upward trend that began in 2014. Sales from physical bookstores in China’s first-tier cities rose by 5.8 percent in 2015. In Shanghai, 10 new bookstores opened in 2015, many in prime downtown areas.

Zhongshuge Bookstore, one of the fastest-growing bookstore chains, opened its third outlet during the book fair. The shop, in the downtown Jing’an Temple area, is the chain’s first outlet downtown.

Zhongshuge goes beyond mere book stacks to attract patrons. Its stores feature a stylized interior with shelving in various geometric shapes, a cafeteria adorned by posters of literary quotes and soft, white lighting that enhances the pleasure of reading.

At last year’s fair, Zhongshuge was selected one of the seven most beautiful bookstores in the city. This year, the fair hosted a competition of photos of bookshops in Shanghai, and the winning entries were exhibited in the fair’s main venue at the Shanghai Exhibition Center.

Yu was among those marveling at the photos. He admits that ambience is now important for the success of bookstores.

“It is entirely different now,” he says. “In my time, it was all about whether you could get your hands on a popular best-seller. Now, it’s all about decor and the environment in a shop.”

The book fair also hosts an annual “Beauty of Books in China” competition and exhibition, showcasing artful book designs. As a special feature this year, award-winning Dutch designers displayed their creations.

“Order — The Story of the Fangyuan Bookshop” attracted considerable attention for its unique design and storytelling. For more than 10 years, bookshop owner Lu Chonghua drew comic caricatures of himself instead of signing his orders to publishers. The look of the faces he drew reflected Lu’s mood on any given day.

The self-caricatures were innovatively compiled into a book tracing the history of this privately owned bookshop, which was founded in 1982 in the city of Xi’an, capital of Shaanxi Province. It won not only the “Beauty of Books in China” competition but also a gold medal at the annual international “Best Book Design” contest in Germany.

Since it was inaugurated in 2011, International Literary Week has remained a highlight of the Shanghai Book Fair.

The week was initiated with French-Mauritian writer and Professor J.M.G Le Clezio, who was born in Nice and won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2008. In ensuring years, the literary week attracted high-profile authors from around the world, including Geoff Dyer, Colum McCann, David Mitchell, Mo Yan and Vidiadhar Suraiprasad Naipaul.

In the past 10 years, more foreign books have been translated into Chinese and published in China. They have included “Steve Jobs: A Biography” and “The Kite Runner,” which remains a top-seller in China.

At this year’s international literary week, more than 40 authors, writing in languages from Russian to Serbian, have been invited to give seminars on topics ranging from the legacy of Shakespeare to contemporary trends in Russian literature.

The authors this year included 2015 Nobel Literature Laureate Svetlana Alexievich from Belarus, Pulitzer Prize winner Junot Diaz and Padma Shri Prize winner Amitav Ghosh.

For the first time, the fair also hosted an International Poetry Festival, highlighting contemporary poets from home and abroad.

Like their foreign counterparts, many Chinese poets find it difficult to sell their verse or make a living professionally. With limited publication prospects, it’s hard to develop a wider audience for poetry.

One exception is Yu Xiuhua, 40, a high school dropout who suffers from cerebral palsy. She shot to stardom last year on social media platforms with her poem “Crossing Big China to Sleep with You.”

In Shanghai, a bookstore specializing in poetry opened in 2009 but was later forced out of business due to poor sales. It reopened again late last year, providing poetry lovers a place to share their interest in verse and explore the works of new authors.

At the fair this year, the digital 3D audio-book section attracted many young readers, reflecting an up-and-coming trend.

The Association of American Publishers annual report showed a 40 percent increase in users of audio books last year, with revenue in that sector doubling since 2012. No specific statistics are available for the China market.

Dozens of new mobile apps are available dedicated to audio books.

“The traffic in Shanghai is so horrible that it takes me three hours on the road every day driving to and from work,” says Liu Wenlu, 35. “So I download audio books and listen to them while driving. I have probably listened to about 80 in the past year. During that same period, I read probably only three hardback books. I am so spoiled by being read to that I don’t sit down and read as much as I used to.”

Liu says it helps that a majority of best-sellers are now available in audio versions.

Publishers of audio books often use celebrities to popularize the format. This month, Penguin Random House announced that the Chinese audio version of Carlo Rovelli’s best-seller “Seven Brief Lessons on Physics” will be read by famed director and actor Huang Lei.

The book fair has highlighted the growing popularity of suspense and science fiction novels, two genres that have sprung to the forefront, thanks to adaptations of films and dramas.

Science fiction has always been viewed as a Western, very Hollywood genre. There were few notable Chinese sci-fi novels, until Liu Cixin’s “Three Bodies” found millions of loyal fans when the trilogy began publication in China’s biggest sci-fi journal in 2006.

The novels were subsequently published in English, earning Liu the Hugo Award for Best Science Fiction last year.

British author Ian McDonald, who won the Hugo Award in 2007, was invited to International Literary Week at the book fair this year. His latest novel “Luna” — called by some critics a “Game of Thrones” in space — is currently being adapted for television.

At the book fair, McDonald held a seminar with local science fiction writer Han Song to discuss the development of the genre.

Suspense is another laggard currently making waves in China. Since crimes here are rarely reported in the kind of grisly detail that has spawned crime fiction aboard, local writers in the past lacked access to blood-and-guts material.

But that is changing.

Netflix’s successful “House of Cards” has inspired the global trend of Internet companies producing dramas and movies, especially in China. But some genres, including crime, often have had trouble getting past censors.

Dramas adapted from best-selling novels are helping popularize the genre.