BOOK 2.0 at CCB: The Place of Books in a World of Algorithms and AI

CCB hosted the fourth edition of BOOK 2.0 – The Future of Reading, organised by the Portuguese Publishers and Booksellers Association (APEL). Books, literacy, education, democracy and the challenges of technological transformation were at the heart of an event that brought together authors, publishers, policymakers, academics and cultural professionals from several countries.

Under the theme “Back to Basics. Back to Books.”, the two-day programme brought together different geographies, generations and fields of knowledge. Sanna Marin, former Prime Minister of Finland, reflected on reading and democracy; Markus Dohle, former CEO of Penguin Random House, addressed the enduring power of books; David Hayman, responsible for the UK’s National Year of Reading 2026, spoke about the need to make reading a national priority; and Luísa Sobral explored the relationship between music, writing and creativity.

Other guests at CCB included Nuno Crato, Adolfo Mesquita Nunes, Luís Portela, Alessandra Carra, Joan Tarrida, Emma House, Erin Cox, Joel Halldorf, Mafalda Ribeiro and Daniela Pierre.

In her address, the Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Margarida Balseiro Lopes, recalled that reading continues to mean engaging with a different perspective from our own and remaining with it for long enough to understand it.

Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, Prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Culture and Education, focused his address on one of the challenges of our time: in a world shaped by artificial intelligence, the risk lies not only in what machines are capable of doing, but also in the possibility that we may forget the value of the human experience from which stories originate.

At the close of the morning session on the second day, the President of Portugal, António José Seguro, emphasized the need for more critical and informed readers, calling for a new impetus in reading policies and for the Portuguese language to be safeguarded as an essential part of life in society. The idea of “good books against the algorithm of banality” was a central theme of his address.

Digital transformation was also discussed in a conversation with the Minister in the Cabinet of the Prime Minister and for State Reform, Gonçalo Saraiva Matias, while other sessions explored topics such as the attention crisis, new ways of reaching readers and the challenges of making books visible in today’s digital ecosystem.

The event was also attended by the Board of Directors of the Centro Cultural de Belém Foundation.

By hosting an initiative that brings culture, knowledge, technology and major contemporary challenges into dialogue, CCB reinforces one of the ambitions of its RE-VISITAR 2026–2030 Strategic Plan: to establish itself as a meeting place for art, thought and society, open to the exchange of ideas, debate and different audiences and generations.

In a world of algorithms and increasingly fragmented attention, BOOK 2.0 left CCB with one essential idea: to keep reading is also to keep thinking.