Pastimes are one of the most common entertainments in newspapers, with classic variants such as crusaders - the magnificent Jordi Fortuny and Màrius Serra -, finding errors, making hieroglyphics or sudoku, which, no matter how old it may seem, has only been popularized everywhere for two decades - La Vanguardia has published them since July 2005 -. Outside of that, there is a magazine industry around it, in addition to the classic summer notebooks that so many children have made as children, when attempts were made to gamify learning. You may have noticed that they have been totally fashionable for a few years, however, and the main publishers insist on summer: in recent weeks, for example, seven of the ten best-selling non-fiction books were hobby books, both in Spanish and Catalan.
We could place the origin of these movements fifteen years ago, in 2012 – the year, by the way, that the Apalabrados application exploded on mobile phones –, when Blackie Books published its first Activity Book for Adults, which inaugurated a growing trend. The editor Jan Martí remembers that “at first we played with the nostalgic thing of the typical summer notebook, especially the remembered Santillana, which kept us so busy because the parents did not want us to return to school too untrained.” "With Daniel López Valle, whom I had known all my life, we thought about how to transform that childhood summer mini-trauma into an informative format. The important thing about our notebooks is the link between learning and knowledge while having a good time," he points out. The phenomenon has crossed borders and they are directly present in Latin America and Italy, and they have sold the rights to Portugal, Holland, Germany or Brazil.
Over the years, for many people “it has become a tradition and each year about 40,000 people repeat it, so that in total we have sold half a million”, because there are summer ones, yes, but also winter ones, for children, for older people, three years ago they also published in Catalan... and they have even released one about the Soccer World Cup. Martí is not worried about the competition: "If imitators have come out, it means that it is a good idea and that we do it well. On the other hand, there are those who are very uncreative and we have found the same format, typography, colors and the same exercise model. What is more difficult is to turn something that you want to explain into a good hobby, which is neither too easy nor difficult, because both extremes generate frustration or boredom."
One of the phenomena that is in fashion this year is Murdoku (Today's Topics / Column), an entertaining mix between detective puzzles and the dynamics of sudoku that the leading enigmist Màrius Serra describes as “an evolution of lifelong logic problems.” Although the first of the two available books came out a year ago, it has exploded this summer, when they have sold more than 400,000 copies in a few months. Sergi Álvarez, editorial director of Temas de Hoy, points out that "if we have all played as children, why do we stop doing it when we grow up? We have always liked the game book line, and in recent years we have managed to introduce it strongly, because it can be played individually, but also in a group or as a family." A few years ago they already triumphed with the Murdle (in Catalan Ara Llibres), a comparable phenomenon – to a lesser extent – that continues. Álvarez admits that he doesn't know "why they have become a viral phenomenon, I guess good ideas end up finding their audience."
Joan Carles Girbés, editorial director of Ara Llibres, remembers that in Catalan it has been a growing phenomenon for a few years and “it is here to stay.” Following the success of Paraulògic in 2022, they began to publish books: “It was a risky move, but I think we opened the space for there to be more in our language.” This is also where his commitment to the Murdle came from, and this year the new game by its author, Bordergrams: "It is an international phenomenon in full bloom - he insists -. There are many books that have their variants and one leads to the other." In 2023 they published Jugada mestra! and they even dared with a feminist Quadern per a senyores modernes, books that are designed for the reader here and that often play with the concept of Catalanness.
Glòria Gasch, editor of Columna, also sees it this way, because in addition to Murdoku this year they have released two notebooks of their own, one on historical pastimes and one on language and literature: “The interest in our language and culture is intrinsic, and we believe it was necessary to play!” Within the same Grup 62, Fanbooks has been publishing its own Passatemps irreverents per a catalanoaddictes for three years now.
The Penguin Random House group also has its Quadern d'estiu per fer vacances de les vacances (Rosa dels Vents), but in Spanish the variety reaches up to a Bruguera Notebook with comic characters such as Mortadelo and Filemón or the brothers Zipi and Zape, and they also publish their own format, the Illustrated Crimes (Plaza&Janés) by Modesto García, which were born, explains the author, trying during the pandemic to create a challenge viral on social networks: "I didn't conceive it as a book, I simply wanted to make myself known and create a personal brand, and it worked so well that now there are a few books," explains García, who believes that one of the reasons why this type of book gains followers is that "they help us reduce hours of screen time, there is no need to be connected to any machine or have coverage or battery to play." The author has made two specifically of Summer Crimes, with a cover that can now be played in the style of the classic Where's Wally?, a format, by the way, that the Comanegra publishing house successfully adapted starting in 2018 with On és l'Estel·la?, by Toni Galmés.
Pau Vidal, head of Minimots in Vilaweb and co-author of the Paraulògic books, recognizes that there is a good effervescence: "They are books that can be taken to the beach to play, and I think that they do not kill the addiction, but rather increase it." As a translator, he is responsible for the Catalan version of Proves sense correction (Edicions 62, in Spanish in Seix Barral translated by Germán Veritens), by Stefano Bartezzaghi, a book full of enigmas that must be solved to find the murderer and that in Italy has become a phenomenon: “It is not easy, and they often get together in groups to find the solutions.” Vidal also recalls that not long ago initiatives aimed at older people also emerged in Catalan to stimulate memory, such as the Abastar publishing house promoted by Judit Pujadó and Xavier Cortadellas.
