Leitura de Bolso, or Pocket Reading, aims to battle literary deterioration in Brazil.

Though they are innately imbued with the potential to be awe inspiring and life affirming, books are also, in their physical form, additional and cumbersome. Much like relationships, they require devotion and consistent attention to reward you.

Figures from Nielsen Bookscan UK reveal that sales of printed books have fallen by more than £150 million in the last five years. Another contributory factor in their decreased popularity is the steady migration over to digital content.

Kindle sales show no signs of abating; Waterstone’s, the U.K’s largest book retailer, has removed Kindle displays from its stores due to “pitiful sales” of material print.

However, our issues pale in significance to those faced by Brazil, a nation who, according to statistics, are facing problems tantamount to literary decay. 7 out of 10 Brazilians failed to read a book in 2015. For a nation that houses a population of 21.4% impoverished people, numbers like that threaten to condemn that social strata to endemic hopelessness.

In response, design agency Isobar Brazil and author Maria Prata have launched an initaitive designed to encourage Brazilian citizens to read more. The campaign, ‘Leitura de Bolso’, which translates as Pocket Reading – will see subscribers receive a literary extract via Whatsapp each Wednesday, which can be read in five minutes or less.

Each season sees a different author invited to contribute, and the writing is accompanied by multimedia elements, such as illustration, to ensure engagement is maintained. Approximately 93 million of the 990 million people who use Whastsapp are based in Brazil, and 70% of those users interactive with the app on a daily basis. Therefore, the hope must be that interacting with Leitura de Bolso, or Pocket Reading will feel completely natural.