There are many reasons to buy a book, from learning about a new topic to the pure entertainment of immersing oneself in a different world.

A new generation has discovered one more, experts say: expressing their personalities in an increasingly online world.

Siôn Hamilton, the trading director of Foyles bookshop, said he had noticed a tendency for people to want to reflect their musical and reading tastes at home, retreating from the digital age to embrace physical objects again.

Speaking at a Hay Festival, sponsored by the Telegraph, Hamilton said Foyles' new store had enticed a "younger, trendier, more vibrant" group of customers, who were well able to order books online but chose to visit a physical bookshop instead.