What 20 years of best sellers say about what we read
20 YEARS OF USA TODAY’S BEST-SELLING BOOKS LISThttp://www.usatoday.com/story/life/books/2013/10/30/twenty-years-of-usa-todays-best-selling-books-list/3194493/
“How has your reading changed in the past 20 years? From readers shopping in brick-and-mortar bookstores, to the dominance of game-changing online sellers, to a digital era of e-reading and instant delivery, the book industry has gone through monumental change. And USA TODAY has been there all along. Look through 20 years of best-selling books.”
“What we read and how we read it has changed a lot in two decades.”
“Two decades worth of data show what’s changed — and what hasn’t — since USA TODAY began tracking best sellers in October 1993.
The highlights from three distinct eras:
• Self-help and other advice titles were big during the first five years (1993-1998) when most books were bought in physical bookstores.
• Rowling triggered Dickens-like excitement about reading and demolished the conventional wisdom about children’s books in the second era (1999-2008), when online sales grew.
• Since 2009, fiction (as a percentage of best sellers) has risen to all-time highs and erotica went mainstream as e-books became the fastest growing part of the market.”
Snippets . . . Among the trends:
Who reads British kids’ books?
Rowling hit it big with ‘Harry Potter.’ Of the 25 most popular books since 2009, 11 are part of series aimed at kids or teens.
Whither self-help? Of the 25 most popular books from the list’s first era (1993-98), nine offered self-help or other advice.
In sharp contrast, not one of the 25 most popular titles since 2009 would be shelved in the self-help section. (That is, unless you consider E.L. James’ erotic Fifty Shades trilogy a sexual aid.)
Fiction as an escape
Sex sells books — and books like ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ are the proof.
Who reads translations?
Hooray for Hollywood – Nothing sells a book like a movie adaptation.
The Oprah effect
What hasn’t changed?
Stephen
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