Are you reading more books since the pandemic began?
Polls
19th January 2022
SALES of books in the UK surged to their highest level in ten years in 2021.
Despite bookshops across the UK being shut for more than three months at the start of 2021 due to the pandemic, sales were up 5% on 2020. A total of 212.6 million books were snapped up last year.
That works out at £1.82 billion worth of books sold, which is also higher than in 2020.
There were huge increases in the sale of fiction titles. In total, fiction was up 20% compared with 2019, the last full year before the pandemic, with science fiction books selling 23% more and sales of romance books 49% higher.
A young adult title made it into the top 20 best- selling books for the first time since 2015. Adam Silvera’s novel They Both Die at the End (below) was published back in 2017, but sales rocketed last year thanks to BookTok, a community of users on TikTok who post videos reviewing and recommending books.
The best-selling book of 2021 was Richard Osman’s crime comedy The Thursday Murder Club. The latest edition of the Guinness World Records book was at six and David Walliams’ Megamonster was at eight.
Are you reading more? Let us know which books in the comments below!
14 Comments
scarlet10 · 2 years ago
100% read more
puddingfan · 2 years ago
I have definitely been reading more books since the pandemic because it’s so good to get lost in a good book and forget all the bad things going on in the world for an hour.
ivansp2011 · 2 years ago
I do because as all the places we usually went are closed because of Covid, I sit at home more regularly. Ihave nothing to do except read books (mostly from the library).
marthajja · 2 years ago
I normally read loads anyway so it wasn't a huge difference but I did!
monkey61 · 2 years ago
I have been reading more although I was still reading lots even before the pandemic because reading is one of my favourite things to do!
zaprooster · 2 years ago
I read so many books in the pandemic such as the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan. They helped me forget about the pandemic
inspecmie · 2 years ago
I have been reading more than before, but slower than before, for some reason. But during the pandemic I did read a lot of good books eg."Lord of the Rings", by J.R.R. Tolkien, "Harry Potter" by J.K.Rowling "His Dark Materials" by P.Pullman, "Huckleberry Finn" by M. Twain and "Sherlock Holmes" by A.C.Doyle
donut_girl · 2 years ago
Definitely yes I love reading
puzzlepeas · 2 years ago
i read a lot more and found favourite authors (Jacqueline Wilson etc)
weirdcat · 2 years ago
I think I read less somehow......):
babypanda1 · 2 years ago
A bit more
athenakid · 2 years ago
I found the Percy Jackson series right before the pandemic be an so that is a definite yes!
kb1. · 1 year ago
Me and my sister love books
kb1. · 11 months ago
I can finish a 10 chapter book in half an hour I even win the readathon in school I raised 150 £