Reading as popular as ever, says those ‘in the know’

Reading is on the rise in Saskatchewan thanks to e-readers and BookTok, with mystery and fantasy leading in Regina. Jacob Carr has more.

Do people still read? The answer is yes, according to the Regina Public Library (RPL).

According to Geoffrey Allen, the RPL’s director of collections, people in the Queen City still flock to the RPL’s many locations in Regina to borrow from their catalogue of books.

One book in particular is flying off the shelves.

Heated Rivalry, a story by Canadian author Rachel Reid, about two hockey rivals who enter into a steamy romance, has surged in popularity since it was adapted into a TV show which released in late November of 2025.

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“We’re excited to get all the books here, I think six in the series already have been published. They’re a little hard to come by, I think the television series has just blown up their popularity. So, I think that caught the publishers off guard a little bit,” Allen said.

“We’re having trouble getting enough copies into the library right now to meet demand. But we’re trying really hard to do that because we know that people really want to read it.”

Christine Scott, who co-owns the used bookstore Centennial Books, says whether Regina readers are buying used, borrowing from the library, or purchasing a new book, it’s the insatiable love of reading that keeps them coming back for more.

“It’s a way to recharge. It’s a way to learn. And the upcoming, basically, the younger generation are voracious readers,” she said. “We all saw that with the explosion of Y-A Lit like The Hunger Games and Twilight, but everybody reads those and it’s a huge thing.”

That is young adult literature, and the genres’ popularity has only risen in the years since The Hunger Games and Twilight series came out.

This is evidenced in the Regina Public Library’s top five most borrowed books list of 2025.

The Hunger Games prequel ‘Sunrise on the Reaping’ coming in at number four.

The third entry in Rebecca Yarros’ romantic fantasy Fourth Wing series, ‘Onyx Storm,’ came in at number two on the list.

“People are always looking for an escape, you could open up a whole new world,” Allen said.

“Could be a fantasy world, a mystery, but it just takes you to parts of the world and to ideas that you might not have encountered in your daily existence.”